diff --git a/doc/source/configuration.rst b/doc/source/configuration.rst
index e8de7c4f70..8f311e037b 100644
--- a/doc/source/configuration.rst
+++ b/doc/source/configuration.rst
@@ -402,6 +402,28 @@ these default images; in that case, you will want to populate
         IMAGE_URLS="http://foo.bar.com/image.qcow,"
         IMAGE_URLS+="http://foo.bar.com/image2.qcow"
 
+
+Instance Type
+-------------
+
+``DEFAULT_INSTANCE_TYPE`` can be used to configure the default instance
+type. When this parameter is not specified, Devstack creates additional
+micro & nano flavors for really small instances to run Tempest tests.
+
+For guests with larger memory requirements, ``DEFAULT_INSTANCE_TYPE``
+should be specified in the configuration file so Tempest selects the
+default flavors instead.
+
+KVM on Power with QEMU 2.4 requires 512 MB to load the firmware -
+`QEMU 2.4 - PowerPC <http://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/2.4>`__ so users
+running instances on ppc64/ppc64le can choose one of the default
+created flavors as follows:
+
+    ::
+
+        DEFAULT_INSTANCE_TYPE=m1.tiny
+
+
 IP Version
 ----------
 
diff --git a/lib/tempest b/lib/tempest
index f4d0a6dab0..6eeab4e231 100644
--- a/lib/tempest
+++ b/lib/tempest
@@ -205,21 +205,12 @@ function configure_tempest {
         if  [[ -z "$DEFAULT_INSTANCE_TYPE" ]]; then
             available_flavors=$(nova flavor-list)
             if [[ ! ( $available_flavors =~ 'm1.nano' ) ]]; then
-                if is_arch "ppc64"; then
-                    # Qemu needs at least 128MB of memory to boot on ppc64
-                    nova flavor-create m1.nano 42 128 0 1
-                else
-                    nova flavor-create m1.nano 42 64 0 1
-                fi
+                nova flavor-create m1.nano 42 64 0 1
             fi
             flavor_ref=42
             boto_instance_type=m1.nano
             if [[ ! ( $available_flavors =~ 'm1.micro' ) ]]; then
-                if is_arch "ppc64"; then
-                    nova flavor-create m1.micro 84 256 0 1
-                else
-                    nova flavor-create m1.micro 84 128 0 1
-                fi
+                nova flavor-create m1.micro 84 128 0 1
             fi
             flavor_ref_alt=84
         else