diff --git a/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh b/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
index 8c9cc46a75c..96d5558d9a1 100755
--- a/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
@@ -42,14 +42,15 @@ CLOUD_PROJECT=grpc-testing
 ZONE=us-central1-b  # this zone allows 32core machines
 
 INSTANCE_NAME="${1:-grpc-performance-server1}"
-MACHINE_TYPE=n1-standard-32
+MACHINE_TYPE=n1-standard-8
 
 gcloud compute instances create $INSTANCE_NAME \
     --project="$CLOUD_PROJECT" \
     --zone "$ZONE" \
     --machine-type $MACHINE_TYPE \
     --image ubuntu-15-10 \
-    --boot-disk-size 300
+    --boot-disk-size 300 \
+    --scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/bigquery
 
 echo 'Created GCE instance, waiting 60 seconds for it to come online.'
 sleep 60
diff --git a/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh b/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
index df29581e69a..90aa527a3e4 100755
--- a/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ sudo pip install tox
 # Node dependencies (nvm has to be installed under user jenkins)
 touch .profile
 curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.25.4/install.sh | bash
+source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
 nvm install 0.12 && npm config set cache /tmp/npm-cache
 nvm install 4 && npm config set cache /tmp/npm-cache
 nvm install 5 && npm config set cache /tmp/npm-cache