diff --git a/tests/README.md b/tests/README.md
index 03f09f14169..0b6ddebf5e1 100644
--- a/tests/README.md
+++ b/tests/README.md
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ AWS_REGION
 ```
 
 ### 2. Launch the tests
-Once the environment variables are set, run `./tests/run.sh`.
+Once the environment variables are set, run `./tests/run.sh aws`.
 
 ## Or, if you already have a cluster running
 
diff --git a/tests/run.sh b/tests/run.sh
index 67b72148d3e..1a51e03d8c3 100755
--- a/tests/run.sh
+++ b/tests/run.sh
@@ -9,13 +9,15 @@ set -e
 
 set -eo pipefail
 
+BACKEND="${1}"
+LEAVE_RUNNING="${LEAVE_RUNNING:-n}"  # do not teardown after successful initialization
 SMOKE_TEST_OUTPUT="Never executed. Problem with one of previous stages"
 [ -z ${PULL_SECRET_PATH+x} ] && (echo "Please set PULL_SECRET_PATH"; exit 1)
 [ -z ${DOMAIN+x} ] && DOMAIN="tectonic-ci.de"
 [ -z ${JOB_NAME+x} ] && PREFIX="${USER:-test}" || PREFIX="ci-${JOB_NAME#*/}"
 CLUSTER_NAME=$(echo "${PREFIX}-$(uuidgen -r | cut -c1-5)" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
 TECTONIC="${PWD}/tectonic-dev/installer/tectonic"
-exec &> >(tee -a "$CLUSTER_NAME.log")
+exec &> >(tee -ai "$CLUSTER_NAME.log")
 
 function destroy() {
   echo -e "\\e[34m Exiting... Destroying Tectonic...\\e[0m"
@@ -24,8 +26,6 @@ function destroy() {
   echo -e "\\e[34m So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish\\e[0m"
 }
 
-trap destroy EXIT
-
 echo -e "\\e[36m Starting build process...\\e[0m"
 bazel build tarball smoke_tests
 # In future bazel build could be extracted to another job which could be running in docker container like this:
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ bazel build tarball smoke_tests
 echo -e "\\e[36m Unpacking artifacts...\\e[0m"
 tar -zxf bazel-bin/tectonic-dev.tar.gz
 cp bazel-bin/tests/smoke/linux_amd64_pure_stripped/go_default_test tectonic-dev/smoke
+chmod 755 tectonic-dev/smoke
 cd tectonic-dev
 
 ### HANDLE SSH KEY ###
@@ -42,25 +43,36 @@ if [ ! -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ]; then
   ssh-keygen -qb 2048 -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -N "" </dev/zero
 fi
 
-if test -z "${AWS_REGION+x}"
-then
-  echo -e "\\e[36m Calculating the AWS region...\\e[0m"
-  AWS_REGION="$(aws configure get region)" ||
-  AWS_REGION="${AWS_REGION:-us-east-1}"
-fi
-export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="${AWS_REGION}"
-unset AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
-
-### ASSUME ROLE ###
-echo -e "\\e[36m Setting up AWS credentials...\\e[0m"
-ACCOUNT_ID=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
-ROLE_ARN="arn:aws:iam::${ACCOUNT_ID}:role/tf-tectonic-installer"
-RES="$(aws sts assume-role --role-arn="${ROLE_ARN}" --role-session-name="jenkins-${CLUSTER_NAME}" --query Credentials --output json)" &&
-export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="$(echo "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.SecretAccessKey')" &&
-export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="$(echo  "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.AccessKeyId')" &&
-export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN="$(echo "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.SessionToken')" &&
-CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES=True ||
-CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES=False
+case "${BACKEND}" in
+aws)
+  if test -z "${AWS_REGION+x}"
+  then
+    echo -e "\\e[36m Calculating the AWS region...\\e[0m"
+    AWS_REGION="$(aws configure get region)" ||
+    AWS_REGION="${AWS_REGION:-us-east-1}"
+  fi
+  export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="${AWS_REGION}"
+  unset AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
+
+  ### ASSUME ROLE ###
+  echo -e "\\e[36m Setting up AWS credentials...\\e[0m"
+  ACCOUNT_ID=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
+  ROLE_ARN="arn:aws:iam::${ACCOUNT_ID}:role/tf-tectonic-installer"
+  RES="$(aws sts assume-role --role-arn="${ROLE_ARN}" --role-session-name="jenkins-${CLUSTER_NAME}" --query Credentials --output json)" &&
+  export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="$(echo "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.SecretAccessKey')" &&
+  export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="$(echo  "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.AccessKeyId')" &&
+  export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN="$(echo "${RES}" | jq --raw-output '.SessionToken')" &&
+  CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES=True ||
+  CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES=False
+  ;;
+libvirt)
+  [ -z ${IMAGE_PATH+x} ] && (echo "Please set libvirt IMAGE_PATH" >&2; exit 1)
+  ;;
+*)
+  echo "unrecognized backend: ${BACKEND}" >&2
+  echo "Use ${0} BACKEND, where BACKEND is aws or libvirt" >&2
+  exit 1
+esac
 
 echo -e "\\e[36m Creating Tectonic configuration...\\e[0m"
 python <<-EOF >"${CLUSTER_NAME}.yaml"
@@ -70,7 +82,7 @@ python <<-EOF >"${CLUSTER_NAME}.yaml"
 
 	import yaml
 
-	with open('examples/tectonic.aws.yaml') as f:
+	with open('examples/tectonic.${BACKEND}.yaml') as f:
 	    config = yaml.load(f)
 	config['name'] = '${CLUSTER_NAME}'
 	with open(os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.ssh', 'id_rsa.pub'))) as f:
@@ -78,26 +90,42 @@ python <<-EOF >"${CLUSTER_NAME}.yaml"
 	config['baseDomain'] = '${DOMAIN}'
 	with open('${PULL_SECRET_PATH}') as f:
 	    config['pullSecret'] = f.read()
-	config['aws']['region'] = '${AWS_REGION}'
-	config['aws']['extraTags'] = {
-	    'expirationDate': (
-	        datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(hours=4)
-	    ).strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M+0000'),
-	}
-	if ${CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES:-False}:
-	    config['aws']['master']['iamRoleName'] = 'tf-tectonic-master-node'
-	    config['aws']['worker']['iamRoleName'] = 'tf-tectonic-worker-node'
+	if '${BACKEND}' == 'aws':
+	    config['aws']['region'] = '${AWS_REGION}'
+	    config['aws']['extraTags'] = {
+	        'expirationDate': (
+	            datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(hours=4)
+	        ).strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M+0000'),
+	    }
+	    if ${CONFIGURE_AWS_ROLES:-False}:
+	        config['aws']['master']['iamRoleName'] = 'tf-tectonic-master-node'
+	        config['aws']['worker']['iamRoleName'] = 'tf-tectonic-worker-node'
+	elif '${BACKEND}' == 'libvirt':
+	    config['libvirt']['imagePath'] = '${IMAGE_PATH}'
 	yaml.safe_dump(config, sys.stdout)
 	EOF
 
 echo -e "\\e[36m Initializing Tectonic...\\e[0m"
 "${TECTONIC}" init --config="${CLUSTER_NAME}".yaml
 
+trap destroy EXIT
+
 echo -e "\\e[36m Deploying Tectonic...\\e[0m"
 "${TECTONIC}" install --dir="${CLUSTER_NAME}"
 echo -e "\\e[36m Running smoke test...\\e[0m"
 export SMOKE_KUBECONFIG="${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/generated/auth/kubeconfig"
-export SMOKE_NODE_COUNT="5"  # Sum of all nodes (master + worker)
 export SMOKE_MANIFEST_PATHS="${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/generated"
+case "${BACKEND}" in
+aws)
+  export SMOKE_NODE_COUNT=5  # Sum of all nodes (boostrap + master + worker)
+  ;;
+libvirt)
+  export SMOKE_NODE_COUNT=4
+  ;;
+esac
 exec 5>&1
-SMOKE_TEST_OUTPUT=$(./smoke -test.v --cluster | tee >(cat - >&5))
+if test "${LEAVE_RUNNING}" = y; then
+  echo "leaving running; tear down manually with: cd ${PWD} && installer/tectonic destroy --dir=${CLUSTER_NAME}"
+  trap - EXIT
+fi
+SMOKE_TEST_OUTPUT=$(./smoke -test.v --cluster | tee -i >(cat - >&5))