diff --git a/system_tests/bigtable.py b/system_tests/bigtable.py
index d7c70b3215ec..4572766bccc3 100644
--- a/system_tests/bigtable.py
+++ b/system_tests/bigtable.py
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@
 
 
 CENTRAL_1C_ZONE = 'us-central1-c'
-CLUSTER_ID = 'gcloud-py' + unique_resource_id('-')
+CLUSTER_ID = 'gcloud' + unique_resource_id('-')
+CLUSTER_ID = CLUSTER_ID[:30]  # Cluster IDs can't exceed 30 chars.
 TABLE_ID = 'gcloud-python-test-table'
 COLUMN_FAMILY_ID1 = u'col-fam-id1'
 COLUMN_FAMILY_ID2 = u'col-fam-id2'
@@ -148,7 +149,8 @@ def test_reload(self):
         self.assertEqual(cluster.serve_nodes, Config.CLUSTER.serve_nodes)
 
     def test_create_cluster(self):
-        cluster_id = '%s-a' % (CLUSTER_ID,)
+        cluster_id = 'new' + unique_resource_id('-')
+        cluster_id = cluster_id[:30]  # Cluster IDs can't exceed 30 chars.
         cluster = Config.CLIENT.cluster(CENTRAL_1C_ZONE, cluster_id)
         operation = cluster.create()
         # Make sure this cluster gets deleted after the test case.
diff --git a/system_tests/bigtable_happybase.py b/system_tests/bigtable_happybase.py
index 90c35a99fe5c..231f1189d61c 100644
--- a/system_tests/bigtable_happybase.py
+++ b/system_tests/bigtable_happybase.py
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@
 _FIRST_ELT = operator.itemgetter(0)
 _helpers.PROJECT = TESTS_PROJECT
 ZONE = 'us-central1-c'
-CLUSTER_ID = 'gcloud-py' + unique_resource_id('-')
+CLUSTER_ID = 'gcloud' + unique_resource_id('-')
+CLUSTER_ID = CLUSTER_ID[:30]  # Cluster IDs can't exceed 30 chars.
 TABLE_NAME = 'table-name'
 ALT_TABLE_NAME = 'other-table'
 TTL_FOR_TEST = 3
diff --git a/system_tests/system_test_utils.py b/system_tests/system_test_utils.py
index 2050d04d2e08..3c1250e589a7 100644
--- a/system_tests/system_test_utils.py
+++ b/system_tests/system_test_utils.py
@@ -69,5 +69,5 @@ def unique_resource_id(delimiter='_'):
     if build_id == '':
         return '%s%d' % (delimiter, 1000 * time.time())
     else:
-        return '%s%d%s%s' % (delimiter, time.time(),
-                             delimiter, build_id)
+        return '%s%s%s%d' % (delimiter, build_id,
+                             delimiter, time.time())