diff --git a/go/vt/vttest/vtprocess.go b/go/vt/vttest/vtprocess.go
index b4e4169cae3..72018043bcc 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttest/vtprocess.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttest/vtprocess.go
@@ -24,17 +24,37 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"path"
+	"regexp"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	vtutils "vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/utils"
+
 	"google.golang.org/protobuf/encoding/prototext"
 
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/log"
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/servenv"
 )
 
+var versionRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`Version: ([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)`)
+
+// getMajorVersion extracts the major version from a binary by running binaryName --version
+func getMajorVersion(binaryName string) (int, error) {
+	version, err := exec.Command(binaryName, "--version").Output()
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	v := versionRegex.FindStringSubmatch(string(version))
+	if len(v) != 4 {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("could not parse server version from: %s", version)
+	}
+
+	return strconv.Atoi(v[1])
+}
+
 // HealthChecker is a callback that impements a service-specific health check
 // It must return true if the service at the given `addr` is reachable, false
 // otherwerise.
@@ -281,8 +301,12 @@ func VtcomboProcess(environment Environment, args *Config, mysql MySQLManager) (
 	if servenv.GRPCAuth() == "mtls" {
 		vt.ExtraArgs = append(vt.ExtraArgs, []string{"--grpc-auth-mode", servenv.GRPCAuth(), "--grpc-key", servenv.GRPCKey(), "--grpc-cert", servenv.GRPCCert(), "--grpc-ca", servenv.GRPCCertificateAuthority(), "--grpc-auth-mtls-allowed-substrings", servenv.ClientCertSubstrings()}...)
 	}
+	vtVer, err := getMajorVersion(vt.Binary)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	if args.VSchemaDDLAuthorizedUsers != "" {
-		vt.ExtraArgs = append(vt.ExtraArgs, []string{"--vschema-ddl-authorized-users", args.VSchemaDDLAuthorizedUsers}...)
+		vt.ExtraArgs = append(vt.ExtraArgs, []string{vtutils.GetFlagVariantForTestsByVersion("--vschema-ddl-authorized-users", vtVer), args.VSchemaDDLAuthorizedUsers}...)
 	}
 	vt.ExtraArgs = append(vt.ExtraArgs, "--mysql-server-version", servenv.MySQLServerVersion())
 	if socket != "" {