diff --git a/hack/lib/etcd.sh b/hack/lib/etcd.sh
index 756e342499c..185420d5427 100755
--- a/hack/lib/etcd.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/etcd.sh
@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@
 ETCD_VERSION=${ETCD_VERSION:-3.5.1}
 ETCD_HOST=${ETCD_HOST:-127.0.0.1}
 ETCD_PORT=${ETCD_PORT:-2379}
+# This is intentionally not called ETCD_LOG_LEVEL:
+# etcd checks that and compains when it is set in addition
+# to the command line argument, even when both have the same value.
+ETCD_LOGLEVEL=${ETCD_LOGLEVEL:-debug}
 export KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL="http://${ETCD_HOST}:${ETCD_PORT}"
 
 kube::etcd::validate() {
@@ -82,8 +86,8 @@ kube::etcd::start() {
   else
     ETCD_LOGFILE=${ETCD_LOGFILE:-"/dev/null"}
   fi
-  kube::log::info "etcd --advertise-client-urls ${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL} --data-dir ${ETCD_DIR} --listen-client-urls http://${ETCD_HOST}:${ETCD_PORT} --log-level=debug > \"${ETCD_LOGFILE}\" 2>/dev/null"
-  etcd --advertise-client-urls "${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL}" --data-dir "${ETCD_DIR}" --listen-client-urls "${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL}" --log-level=debug 2> "${ETCD_LOGFILE}" >/dev/null &
+  kube::log::info "etcd --advertise-client-urls ${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL} --data-dir ${ETCD_DIR} --listen-client-urls http://${ETCD_HOST}:${ETCD_PORT} --log-level=${ETCD_LOGLEVEL} > \"${ETCD_LOGFILE}\" 2>/dev/null"
+  etcd --advertise-client-urls "${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL}" --data-dir "${ETCD_DIR}" --listen-client-urls "${KUBE_INTEGRATION_ETCD_URL}" --log-level="${ETCD_LOGLEVEL}" 2> "${ETCD_LOGFILE}" >/dev/null &
   ETCD_PID=$!
 
   echo "Waiting for etcd to come up."
diff --git a/test/integration/scheduler_perf/README.md b/test/integration/scheduler_perf/README.md
index 536ce951354..5a6ea8d10ef 100644
--- a/test/integration/scheduler_perf/README.md
+++ b/test/integration/scheduler_perf/README.md
@@ -36,14 +36,14 @@ How To Run
 
 ```shell
 # In Kubernetes root path
-make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=true -logtostderr=true -run=." KUBE_TIMEOUT="--timeout=60m" SHORT="--short=false"
+make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf ETCD_LOGLEVEL=warn KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=true -logtostderr=true -run=." KUBE_TIMEOUT="--timeout=60m" SHORT="--short=false"
 ```
 
 ## Benchmark tests
 
 ```shell
 # In Kubernetes root path
-make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling"
+make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf ETCD_LOGLEVEL=warn KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling"
 ```
 
 The benchmark suite runs all the tests specified under config/performance-config.yaml.
@@ -58,14 +58,14 @@ Otherwise, the golang benchmark framework will try to run a test more than once
 
 ```shell
 # In Kubernetes root path
-make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling/SchedulingBasic/5000Nodes/5000InitPods/1000PodsToSchedule"
+make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf ETCD_LOGLEVEL=warn KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling/SchedulingBasic/5000Nodes/5000InitPods/1000PodsToSchedule"
 ```
 
 To produce a cpu profile:
 
 ```shell
 # In Kubernetes root path
-make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf KUBE_TIMEOUT="-timeout=3600s" KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling -cpuprofile ~/cpu-profile.out"
+make test-integration WHAT=./test/integration/scheduler_perf KUBE_TIMEOUT="-timeout=3600s" ETCD_LOGLEVEL=warn KUBE_TEST_VMODULE="''" KUBE_TEST_ARGS="-alsologtostderr=false -logtostderr=false -run=^$$ -benchtime=1ns -bench=BenchmarkPerfScheduling -cpuprofile ~/cpu-profile.out"
 ```
 
 ### How to configure benchmark tests