diff --git a/tools/gce/create_linux_worker.sh b/tools/gce/create_linux_worker.sh
index 7bf8b240818..013127c585e 100755
--- a/tools/gce/create_linux_worker.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/create_linux_worker.sh
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ INSTANCE_NAME="${1:-grpc-jenkins-worker1}"
 gcloud compute instances create $INSTANCE_NAME \
     --project="$CLOUD_PROJECT" \
     --zone "$ZONE" \
-    --machine-type n1-standard-8 \
+    --machine-type n1-highmem-8 \
     --image=ubuntu-1510 \
     --image-project=grpc-testing \
     --boot-disk-size 1000
diff --git a/tools/gce/linux_worker_init.sh b/tools/gce/linux_worker_init.sh
index afcf7a52d92..9230acdca6d 100755
--- a/tools/gce/linux_worker_init.sh
+++ b/tools/gce/linux_worker_init.sh
@@ -34,6 +34,14 @@
 
 set -ex
 
+# Create some swap space
+sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1024 count=10485760
+sudo chmod 600 /swap
+sudo mkswap /swap
+sudo sed -i '$ a\/swap none swap sw 0 0' /etc/fstab
+sudo swapon -a
+
+# Typical apt-get maintenance
 sudo apt-get update
 
 # Install JRE