diff --git a/examples/kubernetes/advanced.md b/examples/kubernetes/advanced.md
index 099ac83e06..1b4e4f260f 100644
--- a/examples/kubernetes/advanced.md
+++ b/examples/kubernetes/advanced.md
@@ -2,36 +2,53 @@
 
 ## Automatically run Vitess on Container Engine
 
-The following command will create a Google Container Engine cluster and bring
+The following commands will create a Google Container Engine cluster and bring
 up Vitess with two shards and three tablets per shard: (Note that it does not
 bring up the Guestbook example)
 
 ```
+
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ export SHARDS=-80,80-
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ export GKE_ZONE=us-central1-b
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ export GKE_NUM_NODES=10
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ export GKE_MACHINE_TYPE=n1-standard-8
 vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./cluster-up.sh
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./vitess-up.sh
 ```
 
 Run the following to tear down the entire Vitess + container engine cluster:
 
 ```
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./vitess-down.sh
 vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./cluster-down.sh
 ```
 
 ## Parameterizing configs
 
-The vttablet and cluster scripts both support parameterization via exporting
+The vitess and cluster scripts both support parameterization via exporting
 environment variables.
 
 ### Parameterizing cluster scripts
 
-The cluster-up.sh script supports the following environment variables:
+Common environment variables:
 
 * GKE_ZONE - Zone to use for Container Engine (default us-central1-b)
-* GKE_MACHINE_TYPE - Container Engine machine type (default n1-standard-1)
-* GKE_NUM_NODES - Number of nodes to use for the cluster (default 3).
 * GKE_CLUSTER_NAME - Name to use when creating a cluster (default example).
 * SHARDS - Comma delimited keyranges for shards (default -80,80- for 2 shards).
 Use 0 for an unsharded keyspace.
-* TABLETS_PER_SHARD - Number of shards per shard (default 3).
+
+The cluster-up.sh script supports the following environment variables:
+
+* GKE_MACHINE_TYPE - Container Engine machine type (default n1-standard-1)
+* GKE_NUM_NODES - Number of nodes to use for the cluster (required).
+* GKE_SSD_SIZE_GB - SSD size (in GB) to use (default 0 for no SSD).
+
+The vitess-up.sh script supports the following environment variables:
+
+* TABLETS_PER_SHARD - Number of tablets per shard (default 3).
+* RDONLY_COUNT - Number of tablets per shard that are rdonly (default 0).
+* VTGATE_COUNT - Number of vtgates (default 25% of total vttablet count,
+with a minimum of 3).
 
 For example, to create an unsharded keyspace with 5 tablets, use the following:
 
@@ -39,9 +56,6 @@ For example, to create an unsharded keyspace with 5 tablets, use the following:
 export SHARDS=0
 export TABLETS_PER_SHARD=5
 vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./cluster-up.sh
+vitess/examples/kubernetes$ ./vitess-up.sh
 ```
 
-### Parameterizing vttablet scripts
-
-Both SHARDS and TABLETS_PER_SHARD from cluster-up.sh apply to vttablet-up.sh.
-
diff --git a/examples/kubernetes/vitess-up.sh b/examples/kubernetes/vitess-up.sh
index e480a46763..fab01dedcb 100755
--- a/examples/kubernetes/vitess-up.sh
+++ b/examples/kubernetes/vitess-up.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ VTGATE_TEMPLATE=${VTGATE_TEMPLATE:-'vtgate-controller-benchmarking-template.yaml
 VTGATE_COUNT=${VTGATE_COUNT:-0}
 VTDATAROOT_VOLUME=${VTDATAROOT_VOLUME:-''}
 CELLS=${CELLS:-'test'}
+KEYSPACE=${KEYSPACE:-'test_keyspace'}
 
 cells=`echo $CELLS | tr ',' ' '`
 num_cells=`echo $cells | wc -w`
@@ -31,6 +32,13 @@ num_cells=`echo $cells | wc -w`
 # Get region from zone (everything to last dash)
 gke_region=`echo $GKE_ZONE | sed "s/-[^-]*$//"`
 
+num_shards=`echo $SHARDS | tr "," " " | wc -w`
+total_tablet_count=$(($num_shards*$TABLETS_PER_SHARD*$num_cells))
+vtgate_count=$VTGATE_COUNT
+if [ $vtgate_count -eq 0 ]; then
+  vtgate_count=$(($total_tablet_count/4>3?$total_tablet_count/4:3))
+fi
+
 # export for vttablet scripts
 export SHARDS=$SHARDS
 export TABLETS_PER_SHARD=$TABLETS_PER_SHARD
@@ -38,7 +46,7 @@ export RDONLY_COUNT=$RDONLY_COUNT
 export VTDATAROOT_VOLUME=$VTDATAROOT_VOLUME
 export VTGATE_TEMPLATE=$VTGATE_TEMPLATE
 export VTTABLET_TEMPLATE=$VTTABLET_TEMPLATE
-export VTGATE_REPLICAS=$VTGATE_COUNT
+export VTGATE_REPLICAS=$vtgate_count
 
 function update_spinner_value () {
   spinner='-\|/'
@@ -84,12 +92,6 @@ fi
 
 export KUBECTL='kubectl'
 go get github.com/youtube/vitess/go/cmd/vtctlclient
-num_shards=`echo $SHARDS | tr "," " " | wc -w`
-total_tablet_count=$(($num_shards*$TABLETS_PER_SHARD*$num_cells))
-vtgate_count=$VTGATE_COUNT
-if [ $vtgate_count -eq 0 ]; then
-  vtgate_count=$(($total_tablet_count/4>3?$total_tablet_count/4:3))
-fi
 
 echo "****************************"
 echo "*Creating vitess cluster:"
@@ -108,26 +110,32 @@ for cell in $cells; do
 done
 
 echo 'Running vtctld-up.sh' && ./vtctld-up.sh
-echo 'Running vttablet-up.sh' && CELLS=$CELLS ./vttablet-up.sh
-echo 'Running vtgate-up.sh' && ./vtgate-up.sh
 
 wait_for_running_tasks vtctld 1
-wait_for_running_tasks vttablet $total_tablet_count
-wait_for_running_tasks vtgate $vtgate_count
-
 echo Creating firewall rule for vtctld...
 vtctld_port=30001
 gcloud compute firewall-rules create ${GKE_CLUSTER_NAME}-vtctld --allow tcp:$vtctld_port
-vtctld_ip=`$KUBECTL get -o yaml nodes | grep 'type: ExternalIP' -B 1 | head -1 | awk '{print $NF}'`
-vtctl_server="$vtctld_ip:$vtctld_port"
-kvtctl="$GOPATH/bin/vtctlclient -server $vtctl_server"
+kvtctl="./kvtctl.sh"
+
+if [ $num_shards -gt 0 ]
+then
+  echo Calling CreateKeyspace and SetKeyspaceShardingInfo
+  $kvtctl CreateKeyspace -force $KEYSPACE
+  $kvtctl SetKeyspaceShardingInfo -force -split_shard_count $num_shards $KEYSPACE keyspace_id uint64
+fi
+
+echo 'Running vttablet-up.sh' && CELLS=$CELLS ./vttablet-up.sh
+echo 'Running vtgate-up.sh' && ./vtgate-up.sh
+wait_for_running_tasks vttablet $total_tablet_count
+wait_for_running_tasks vtgate $vtgate_count
+
 
 echo Waiting for tablets to be visible in the topology
 counter=0
 while [ $counter -lt $MAX_VTTABLET_TOPO_WAIT_RETRIES ]; do
   num_tablets=0
   for cell in $cells; do
-    num_tablets=$(($num_tablets+`$kvtctl ListAllTablets $cell | wc -l`))
+    num_tablets=$(($num_tablets+`$kvtctl ListAllTablets $cell | grep $KEYSPACE | wc -l`))
   done
   echo -en "\r$num_tablets out of $total_tablet_count in topology..."
   if [ $num_tablets -eq $total_tablet_count ]
@@ -152,20 +160,20 @@ if [ $split_shard_count -eq 1 ]; then
 fi
 
 echo -n Setting Keyspace Sharding Info...
-$kvtctl SetKeyspaceShardingInfo -force -split_shard_count $split_shard_count test_keyspace keyspace_id uint64
+$kvtctl SetKeyspaceShardingInfo -force -split_shard_count $split_shard_count $KEYSPACE keyspace_id uint64
 echo Done
 echo -n Rebuilding Keyspace Graph...
-$kvtctl RebuildKeyspaceGraph test_keyspace
+$kvtctl RebuildKeyspaceGraph $KEYSPACE
 echo Done
 echo -n Reparenting...
 shard_num=1
 for shard in $(echo $SHARDS | tr "," " "); do
-  $kvtctl InitShardMaster -force test_keyspace/$shard `echo $cells | awk '{print $1}'`-0000000${shard_num}00
+  $kvtctl InitShardMaster -force $KEYSPACE/$shard `echo $cells | awk '{print $1}'`-0000000${shard_num}00
   let shard_num=shard_num+1
 done
 echo Done
 echo -n Applying Schema...
-$kvtctl ApplySchema -sql "$(cat create_test_table.sql)" test_keyspace
+$kvtctl ApplySchema -sql "$(cat create_test_table.sql)" $KEYSPACE
 echo Done
 
 echo Creating firewall rule for vtgate
@@ -189,8 +197,8 @@ fi
 
 echo "****************************"
 echo "* Complete!"
-echo "* Use the following line to make an alias to kvtctl:"
-echo "* alias kvtctl='\$GOPATH/bin/vtctlclient -server $vtctl_server'"
-echo "* vtctld: [http://${vtctl_server}]"
+echo "* Access the vtctld web UI by performing the following steps:"
+echo "*   $ kubectl proxy --port=8001"
+echo "*   Visit http://localhost:8001/api/v1/proxy/namespaces/default/services/vtctld:web/"
 echo "* vtgate: $vtgate_server"
 echo "****************************"
diff --git a/examples/kubernetes/vtgate-controller-benchmarking-template.yaml b/examples/kubernetes/vtgate-controller-benchmarking-template.yaml
index 7064d08cdc..1f1db79638 100644
--- a/examples/kubernetes/vtgate-controller-benchmarking-template.yaml
+++ b/examples/kubernetes/vtgate-controller-benchmarking-template.yaml
@@ -13,15 +13,21 @@ spec:
       containers:
         - name: vtgate
           image: vitess/root
-          resources:
-            limits:
-              memory: "4Gi"
-              cpu: "6"
+          livenessProbe:
+            httpGet:
+              path: /debug/vars
+              port: 15001
+            initialDelaySeconds: 30
+            timeoutSeconds: 5
           volumeMounts:
             - name: syslog
               mountPath: /dev/log
             - name: vtdataroot
               mountPath: /vt/vtdataroot
+          resources:
+            limits:
+              memory: "4Gi"
+              cpu: "6"
           command:
             - sh
             - "-c"