diff --git a/cluster/gce/trusty/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/trusty/configure-helper.sh
index 68976805df6..ea3ded99cbb 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/trusty/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/trusty/configure-helper.sh
@@ -301,13 +301,23 @@ create_master_auth() {
     echo "${KUBE_PROXY_TOKEN},kube_proxy,kube_proxy" >> "${known_tokens_csv}"
   fi
 
-  if [ -n "${PROJECT_ID:-}" ] && [ -n "${TOKEN_URL:-}" ] && [ -n "${TOKEN_BODY:-}" ] && [ -n "${NODE_NETWORK:-}" ]; then
-    cat <<EOF >/etc/gce.conf
+  use_cloud_config="false"
+  cat <<EOF >/etc/gce.conf
 [global]
+EOF
+  if [ -n "${PROJECT_ID:-}" ] && [ -n "${TOKEN_URL:-}" ] && [ -n "${TOKEN_BODY:-}" ] && [ -n "${NODE_NETWORK:-}" ]; then
+  use_cloud_config="true"
+  cat <<EOF >>/etc/gce.conf
 token-url = ${TOKEN_URL}
 token-body = ${TOKEN_BODY}
 project-id = ${PROJECT_ID}
 network-name = ${NODE_NETWORK}
+EOF
+  fi
+  if [ -n "${NODE_INSTANCE_PREFIX:-}" ]; then
+    use_cloud_config="true"
+    cat <<EOF >>/etc/gce.conf
+node-tags = ${NODE_INSTANCE_PREFIX}
 EOF
   fi
   if [ -n "${MULTIZONE:-}" ]; then
@@ -315,7 +325,9 @@ EOF
 multizone = ${MULTIZONE}
 EOF
   fi
-
+  if [ "${use_cloud_config}" != "true" ]; then
+    rm -f /etc/gce.conf
+  fi
   if [ -n "${GCP_AUTHN_URL:-}" ]; then
     cat <<EOF >/etc/gcp_authn.config
 clusters:
@@ -754,3 +766,32 @@ start_kube_addons() {
   # Place addon manager pod manifest
   cp "${addon_src_dir}/kube-addon-manager.yaml" /etc/kubernetes/manifests
 }
+
+reset_motd() {
+  # kubelet is installed both on the master and nodes, and the version is easy to parse (unlike kubectl)
+  readonly version="$(/usr/bin/kubelet --version=true | cut -f2 -d " ")"
+  # This logic grabs either a release tag (v1.2.1 or v1.2.1-alpha.1),
+  # or the git hash that's in the build info.
+  gitref="$(echo "${version}" | sed -r "s/(v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+)(-[a-z]+\.[0-9]+)?.*/\1\2/g")"
+  devel=""
+  if [ "${gitref}" != "${version}" ]; then
+    devel="
+Note: This looks like a development version, which might not be present on GitHub.
+If it isn't, the closest tag is at:
+  https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/${gitref}
+"
+    gitref="${version//*+/}"
+  fi
+  cat > /etc/motd <<EOF
+Welcome to Kubernetes ${version}!
+You can find documentation for Kubernetes at:
+  http://docs.kubernetes.io/
+You can download the build image for this release at:
+  https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${version}/kubernetes-src.tar.gz
+It is based on the Kubernetes source at:
+  https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/${gitref}
+${devel}
+For Kubernetes copyright and licensing information, see:
+  /home/kubernetes/LICENSES
+EOF
+}
diff --git a/cluster/gce/trusty/configure.sh b/cluster/gce/trusty/configure.sh
index 0494cc0377b..c89513a3f74 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/trusty/configure.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/trusty/configure.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@
 # of needed functions. The script itself is not supposed to be executed in
 # other manners.
 
+set_broken_motd() {
+  cat > /etc/motd <<EOF
+Broken (or in progress) Kubernetes node setup! If you are using Ubuntu Trusty,
+check log file /var/log/syslog. If you are using GCI image, use
+"journalctl | grep kube" to find more information.
+EOF
+}
+
 download_kube_env() {
   # Fetch kube-env from GCE metadata server.
   readonly tmp_kube_env="/tmp/kube-env.yaml"
@@ -151,6 +159,7 @@ install_kube_binary_config() {
       rm -f "${kube_bin}/kubectl"
     fi
   fi
+  cp "${kube_home}/kubernetes/LICENSES" "${kube_home}"
 
   # Put kube-system pods manifests in /home/kubernetes/kube-manifests/.
   dst_dir="${kube_home}/kube-manifests"
@@ -169,9 +178,9 @@ install_kube_binary_config() {
   tar xzf "${kube_home}/${manifests_tar}" -C "${dst_dir}" --overwrite
   readonly kube_addon_registry="${KUBE_ADDON_REGISTRY:-gcr.io/google_containers}"
   if [ "${kube_addon_registry}" != "gcr.io/google_containers" ]; then
-    find "${dst_dir}" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.yaml -or -maxdepth 1 -name \*.yaml.in | \
+    find "${dst_dir}" -name \*.yaml -or -name \*.yaml.in | \
       xargs sed -ri "s@(image:\s.*)gcr.io/google_containers@\1${kube_addon_registry}@"
-    find "${dst_dir}" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.manifest -or -maxdepth 1 -name \*.json | \
+    find "${dst_dir}" -name \*.manifest -or -name \*.json | \
       xargs sed -ri "s@(image\":\s+\")gcr.io/google_containers@\1${kube_addon_registry}@"
   fi
   cp "${dst_dir}/kubernetes/gci-trusty/trusty-configure-helper.sh" /etc/kube-configure-helper.sh
diff --git a/cluster/gce/trusty/master.yaml b/cluster/gce/trusty/master.yaml
index 411bf633726..d8815232d44 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/trusty/master.yaml
+++ b/cluster/gce/trusty/master.yaml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ script
 		-o /etc/kube-configure.sh \
 		http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/attributes/configure-sh
 	. /etc/kube-configure.sh
+	set_broken_motd
 	echo "Downloading kube-env file"
 	download_kube_env
 	. /etc/kube-env
@@ -192,6 +193,7 @@ script
 	start_kube_scheduler
 	start_kube_addons
 	start_cluster_autoscaler
+	reset_motd
 } 2>&1 | logger --priority daemon.info -t ${UPSTART_JOB}
 end script
 
diff --git a/cluster/gce/trusty/node.yaml b/cluster/gce/trusty/node.yaml
index a7c49f47ea0..22b2ad98e18 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/trusty/node.yaml
+++ b/cluster/gce/trusty/node.yaml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ script
 		-o /etc/kube-configure.sh \
 		http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/attributes/configure-sh
 	. /etc/kube-configure.sh
+	set_broken_motd
 	echo "Downloading kube-env file"
 	download_kube_env
 	. /etc/kube-env
@@ -248,6 +249,7 @@ script
 	if [ "${ENABLE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY:-}" = "true" ]; then
 		cp /home/kubernetes/kube-manifests/kubernetes/kube-registry-proxy.yaml /etc/kubernetes/manifests/
 	fi
+	reset_motd
 } 2>&1 | logger --priority daemon.info -t ${UPSTART_JOB}
 end script