diff --git a/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt b/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
index b9dd7fcb57d..2e775f22b98 100644
--- a/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
+++ b/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
@@ -214,6 +214,7 @@ input-dirs
 insecure-bind-address
 insecure-port
 insecure-skip-tls-verify
+instance-metadata
 instance-name-prefix
 iptables-masquerade-bit
 iptables-sync-period
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
index 862fb088fd2..15b7969d5cd 100755
--- a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
+++ b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/e2e-node-jenkins.sh
@@ -38,4 +38,4 @@ go run test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go  --logtostderr --vmodule=*=2 --ssh-env="g
   --zone="$GCE_ZONE" --project="$GCE_PROJECT" --image-project="$GCE_IMAGE_PROJECT" \
   --hosts="$GCE_HOSTS" --images="$GCE_IMAGES" --cleanup="$CLEANUP" \
   --results-dir="$ARTIFACTS" --ginkgo-flags="$GINKGO_FLAGS" \
-  --setup-node="$SETUP_NODE"
+  --setup-node="$SETUP_NODE" --instance-metadata="$GCE_INSTANCE_METADATA"
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/gci-init.yaml b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/gci-init.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1227c73e019
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/gci-init.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#cloud-config
+
+runcmd:
+  - ETCD_VERSION=v2.2.5
+  - curl -L https://github.com/coreos/etcd/releases/download/${ETCD_VERSION}/etcd-${ETCD_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/etcd.tar.gz
+  - tar xzvf /tmp/etcd.tar.gz -C /tmp
+  - sudo mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VERSION}-linux-amd64/etcd* /usr/local/bin/
+  - sudo chown root:root /usr/local/bin/etcd*
+  - rm -r /tmp/etcd*
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-docker-validation.properties b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-docker-validation.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..837ddbf3692
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_node/jenkins/jenkins-docker-validation.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+GCI_IMAGE_PROJECT=container-vm-image-staging
+GCI_IMAGE_FAMILY=gci-preview-test
+GCI_IMAGE=$(gcloud compute images describe-from-family ${GCI_IMAGE_FAMILY} --project=${GCI_IMAGE_PROJECT} --format="value(name)")
+DOCKER_VERSION=$(curl -fsSL --retry 3 https://api.github.com/repos/docker/docker/releases | tac | tac | grep -m 1 "\"tag_name\"\:" | grep -Eo "[0-9\.rc-]+")
+GCI_CLOUD_INIT=test/e2e_node/jenkins/gci-init.yaml
+
+GCE_HOSTS=
+GCE_IMAGES=${GCI_IMAGE}
+GCE_IMAGE_PROJECT=${GCI_IMAGE_PROJECT}
+GCE_ZONE=us-central1-f
+GCE_PROJECT=kubernetes-jenkins
+# kubernetes-jenkins
+# user-data is the GCI cloud init config file.
+# gci-docker-version specifies docker version in GCI image.
+GCE_INSTANCE_METADATA="user-data<${GCI_CLOUD_INIT},gci-docker-version=${DOCKER_VERSION}"
+CLEANUP=true
+GINKGO_FLAGS=--skip=FLAKY
+SETUP_NODE=false
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go b/test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go
index 0dca4e2126d..ce365e74b1f 100644
--- a/test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go
+++ b/test/e2e_node/runner/run_e2e.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net/http"
 	"os"
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ var cleanup = flag.Bool("cleanup", true, "If true remove files from remote hosts
 var deleteInstances = flag.Bool("delete-instances", true, "If true, delete any instances created")
 var buildOnly = flag.Bool("build-only", false, "If true, build e2e_node_test.tar.gz and exit.")
 var setupNode = flag.Bool("setup-node", false, "When true, current user will be added to docker group on the test machine")
+var instanceMetadata = flag.String("instance-metadata", "", "key/value metadata for instances separated by '=' or '<', 'k=v' means the key is 'k' and the value is 'v'; 'k<p' means the key is 'k' and the value is extracted from the local path 'p', e.g. k1=v1,k2<p2")
 
 var computeService *compute.Service
 
@@ -254,6 +256,19 @@ func createInstance(image string) (string, error) {
 			},
 		},
 	}
+	if *instanceMetadata != "" {
+		raw := parseInstanceMetadata(*instanceMetadata)
+		i.Metadata = &compute.Metadata{}
+		metadata := []*compute.MetadataItems{}
+		for k, v := range raw {
+			val := v
+			metadata = append(metadata, &compute.MetadataItems{
+				Key:   k,
+				Value: &val,
+			})
+		}
+		i.Metadata.Items = metadata
+	}
 	op, err := computeService.Instances.Insert(*project, *zone, i).Do()
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
@@ -343,6 +358,30 @@ func deleteInstance(image string) {
 	}
 }
 
+func parseInstanceMetadata(str string) map[string]string {
+	metadata := make(map[string]string)
+	ss := strings.Split(str, ",")
+	for _, s := range ss {
+		kv := strings.Split(s, "=")
+		if len(kv) == 2 {
+			metadata[kv[0]] = kv[1]
+			continue
+		}
+		kp := strings.Split(s, "<")
+		if len(kp) != 2 {
+			glog.Errorf("Invalid instance metadata: %q", s)
+			continue
+		}
+		v, err := ioutil.ReadFile(kp[1])
+		if err != nil {
+			glog.Errorf("Failed to read metadata file %q: %v", kp[1], err)
+			continue
+		}
+		metadata[kp[0]] = string(v)
+	}
+	return metadata
+}
+
 func imageToInstanceName(image string) string {
 	return *instanceNamePrefix + "-" + image
 }