diff --git a/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh b/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
index c9a0ffa4e10..2c8cf0b96b3 100755
--- a/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/create_linux_performance_worker.sh
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ gcloud compute instances create $INSTANCE_NAME \
     --project="$CLOUD_PROJECT" \
     --zone "$ZONE" \
     --machine-type $MACHINE_TYPE \
-    --image ubuntu-15-10 \
+    --image-project ubuntu-os-cloud \
+    --image-family ubuntu-1604-lts \
     --boot-disk-size 300 \
     --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/bigquery
 
diff --git a/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh b/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
index 487672549fa..523749ee814 100755
--- a/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/linux_performance_worker_init.sh
@@ -90,6 +90,16 @@ sudo apt-get install -y libgflags-dev libgtest-dev libc++-dev clang
 # Python dependencies
 sudo pip install tabulate
 sudo pip install google-api-python-client
+sudo pip install virtualenv
+
+# TODO(jtattermusch): For some reason, building gRPC Python depends on python3.4
+# being installed, but python3.4 is not available on Ubuntu 16.04.
+# Temporarily fixing this by adding a PPA with python3.4, but we should
+# really remove this hack once possible.
+sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes
+sudo apt-get update
+sudo apt-get install -y python3.4 python3.4-dev
+python3.4 -m pip install virtualenv
 
 curl -O https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
 sudo pypy get-pip.py
@@ -105,17 +115,17 @@ nvm install 4 && npm config set cache /tmp/npm-cache
 nvm install 5 && npm config set cache /tmp/npm-cache
 nvm alias default 4
 
-# C# dependencies (http://www.mono-project.com/docs/getting-started/install/linux/#debian-ubuntu-and-derivatives)
-
+# C# mono dependencies (http://www.mono-project.com/docs/getting-started/install/linux/#debian-ubuntu-and-derivatives)
 sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
 echo "deb http://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian wheezy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-xamarin.list
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install -y mono-devel nuget
 
-# The version of nuget that is installed using apt-get is too old to download
-# the System.Interactive.Async.3.0.0 C# dependency. Update to the latest version
-# in order to be able download it.
-sudo nuget update -self
+# C# .NET Core dependencies (https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#ubuntu)
+sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt-mo.trafficmanager.net/repos/dotnet-release/ xenial main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dotnetdev.list'
+sudo apt-key adv --keyserver apt-mo.trafficmanager.net --recv-keys 417A0893
+sudo apt-get update
+sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-dev-1.0.0-preview2-003131
 
 # Ruby dependencies
 gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/performance/build_performance.sh b/tools/run_tests/performance/build_performance.sh
index 352c6797579..e981cae76b0 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/performance/build_performance.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/performance/build_performance.sh
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ do
   "go")
     tools/run_tests/performance/build_performance_go.sh
     ;;
+  "csharp")
+    tools/run_tests/run_tests.py -l $language -c $CONFIG --build_only -j 8 --compiler coreclr
+    ;;
   *)
     tools/run_tests/run_tests.py -l $language -c $CONFIG --build_only -j 8
     ;;
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/performance/kill_workers.sh b/tools/run_tests/performance/kill_workers.sh
index 279cc7df294..6e33efad4c5 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/performance/kill_workers.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/performance/kill_workers.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ killall -9 qps_worker || true
 
 # C#
 ps -C mono -o pid=,cmd= | grep QpsWorker | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill -9 || true
+ps -C dotnet -o pid=,cmd= | grep QpsWorker | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill -9 || true
 
 # Ruby
 ps -C ruby -o pid=,cmd= | grep 'qps/worker.rb' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill -9 || true
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/performance/run_worker_csharp.sh b/tools/run_tests/performance/run_worker_csharp.sh
index b91df09b427..b4c5ec288f9 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/performance/run_worker_csharp.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/performance/run_worker_csharp.sh
@@ -33,6 +33,6 @@ set -ex
 cd $(dirname $0)/../../..
 
 # needed to correctly locate testca
-cd src/csharp/Grpc.IntegrationTesting.QpsWorker/bin/Release
+cd src/csharp/Grpc.IntegrationTesting.QpsWorker/bin/Release/netcoreapp1.0
 
-mono Grpc.IntegrationTesting.QpsWorker.exe $@
+dotnet exec Grpc.IntegrationTesting.QpsWorker.dll $@