diff --git a/app/vmstorage/main.go b/app/vmstorage/main.go
index 54ead38f3d..8bda8ba7b3 100644
--- a/app/vmstorage/main.go
+++ b/app/vmstorage/main.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ var (
 	snapshotAuthKey   = flag.String("snapshotAuthKey", "", "authKey, which must be passed in query string to /snapshot* pages")
 	forceMergeAuthKey = flag.String("forceMergeAuthKey", "", "authKey, which must be passed in query string to /internal/force_merge pages")
 	forceFlushAuthKey = flag.String("forceFlushAuthKey", "", "authKey, which must be passed in query string to /internal/force_flush pages")
-	snapshotsMaxAge   = flag.Duration("snapshotsMaxAge", 0, "Automatically delete snapshots older than -snapshotsMaxAge if it is set to non-zero duration. Make sure that backup process has enough time to finish the backup before the corresponding snapshot is automatically deleted")
+	snapshotsMaxAge   = flagutil.NewDuration("snapshotsMaxAge", "0", "Automatically delete snapshots older than -snapshotsMaxAge if it is set to non-zero duration. Make sure that backup process has enough time to finish the backup before the corresponding snapshot is automatically deleted")
 
 	finalMergeDelay = flag.Duration("finalMergeDelay", 0, "The delay before starting final merge for per-month partition after no new data is ingested into it. "+
 		"Final merge may require additional disk IO and CPU resources. Final merge may increase query speed and reduce disk space usage in some cases. "+
@@ -253,9 +253,10 @@ func requestHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, strg *storage.Storag
 
 func initStaleSnapshotsRemover(strg *storage.Storage) {
 	staleSnapshotsRemoverCh = make(chan struct{})
-	if *snapshotsMaxAge <= 0 {
+	if snapshotsMaxAge.Msecs <= 0 {
 		return
 	}
+	snapshotsMaxAgeDur := time.Duration(snapshotsMaxAge.Msecs) * time.Millisecond
 	staleSnapshotsRemoverWG.Add(1)
 	go func() {
 		defer staleSnapshotsRemoverWG.Done()
@@ -267,7 +268,7 @@ func initStaleSnapshotsRemover(strg *storage.Storage) {
 				return
 			case <-t.C:
 			}
-			if err := strg.DeleteStaleSnapshots(*snapshotsMaxAge); err != nil {
+			if err := strg.DeleteStaleSnapshots(snapshotsMaxAgeDur); err != nil {
 				// Use logger.Errorf instead of logger.Fatalf in the hope the error is temporary.
 				logger.Errorf("cannot delete stale snapshots: %s", err)
 			}