diff --git a/qa/qa/runtime/env.rb b/qa/qa/runtime/env.rb
index e78b9bece19..4e5610d69b7 100644
--- a/qa/qa/runtime/env.rb
+++ b/qa/qa/runtime/env.rb
@@ -181,6 +181,10 @@ module QA
         ENV.fetch('GCLOUD_REGION')
       end
 
+      def gcloud_num_nodes
+        ENV.fetch('GCLOUD_NUM_NODES', 3)
+      end
+
       def has_gcloud_credentials?
         %w[GCLOUD_ACCOUNT_KEY GCLOUD_ACCOUNT_EMAIL].none? { |var| ENV[var].to_s.empty? }
       end
diff --git a/qa/qa/service/kubernetes_cluster.rb b/qa/qa/service/kubernetes_cluster.rb
index 7b3451ed799..ac0b6313167 100644
--- a/qa/qa/service/kubernetes_cluster.rb
+++ b/qa/qa/service/kubernetes_cluster.rb
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ module QA
           --enable-basic-auth
           --region #{Runtime::Env.gcloud_region}
           --disk-size 10GB
+          --num-nodes #{Runtime::Env.gcloud_num_nodes}
           && gcloud container clusters
           get-credentials
           --region #{Runtime::Env.gcloud_region}