diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2243aadc..c4951a10 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ e2e-test: vet fmt build-tar
 	GO111MODULE=on go test -mod vendor -timeout=10m -v $(BUILD_TAGS) \
 	./test/e2e/metriconly/... \
 	-project=$(PROJECT) -zone=$(ZONE) \
-	-image=$(VM_IMAGE) -image-project=$(IMAGE_PROJECT) \
+	-image=$(VM_IMAGE) -image-family=$(IMAGE_FAMILY) -image-project=$(IMAGE_PROJECT) \
 	-ssh-user=$(SSH_USER) -ssh-key=$(SSH_KEY) \
 	-npd-build-tar=`pwd`/$(TARBALL) \
 	-boskos-project-type=$(BOSKOS_PROJECT_TYPE) -job-name=$(JOB_NAME) \
diff --git a/test/e2e/metriconly/e2e_npd_test.go b/test/e2e/metriconly/e2e_npd_test.go
index 8a5075bd..40235703 100644
--- a/test/e2e/metriconly/e2e_npd_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/metriconly/e2e_npd_test.go
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ const junitFileName = "junit.xml"
 var zone = flag.String("zone", "", "gce zone the hosts live in")
 var project = flag.String("project", "", "gce project the hosts live in")
 var image = flag.String("image", "", "image to test")
+var imageFamily = flag.String("image-family", "", "image family to pick up the test image. Ignored when -image is set.")
 var imageProject = flag.String("image-project", "", "gce project of the OS image")
 var jobName = flag.String("job-name", "", "name of the Prow job running the test")
 var sshKey = flag.String("ssh-key", "", "path to ssh private key.")
diff --git a/test/e2e/metriconly/metrics_test.go b/test/e2e/metriconly/metrics_test.go
index c0ddfbdb..a1001aff 100644
--- a/test/e2e/metriconly/metrics_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/metriconly/metrics_test.go
@@ -37,6 +37,15 @@ var _ = ginkgo.Describe("NPD should export Prometheus metrics.", func() {
 		var err error
 		// TODO(xueweiz): Creating instance for each test case is slow. We should either reuse the instance
 		// between tests, or have a way to run these tests in parallel.
+		if *imageFamily != "" && *image == "" {
+			gceImage, err := computeService.Images.GetFromFamily(*imageProject, *imageFamily).Do()
+			if err != nil {
+				ginkgo.Fail(fmt.Sprintf("Unable to get image from family %s at project %s: %v",
+					*imageFamily, *imageProject, err))
+			}
+			*image = gceImage.Name
+			fmt.Printf("Using image %s from image family %s at project %s\n", *image, *imageFamily, *imageProject)
+		}
 		instance, err = gce.CreateInstance(
 			gce.Instance{
 				Name:           "npd-metrics-" + *image + "-" + uuid.NewUUID().String()[:8],