diff --git a/test/common/config/vm_setup.conf b/test/common/config/vm_setup.conf
index 9b810cff8..5ccba87ca 100644
--- a/test/common/config/vm_setup.conf
+++ b/test/common/config/vm_setup.conf
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@ GIT_REPO_FLAMEGRAPH=https://github.com/brendangregg/FlameGraph.git
 GIT_REPO_QEMU=https://github.com/spdk/qemu
 GIT_REPO_VPP=https://gerrit.fd.io/r/vpp
 GIT_REPO_LIBISCSI=https://github.com/sahlberg/libiscsi
+GIT_REPO_SPDK_NVME_CLI=https://github.com/spdk/nvme-cli
diff --git a/test/common/config/vm_setup.sh b/test/common/config/vm_setup.sh
index 05324cd5c..477e9558b 100755
--- a/test/common/config/vm_setup.sh
+++ b/test/common/config/vm_setup.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ VM_SETUP_PATH=$(readlink -f ${BASH_SOURCE%/*})
 
 UPGRADE=false
 INSTALL=false
-CONF="librxe,iscsi,rocksdb,fio,flamegraph,tsocks,qemu,vpp,libiscsi"
+CONF="librxe,iscsi,rocksdb,fio,flamegraph,tsocks,qemu,vpp,libiscsi,nvmecli"
 CONF_PATH="${VM_SETUP_PATH}/vm_setup.conf"
 
 function usage()
@@ -336,6 +336,14 @@ if echo $CONF | grep -q vpp; then
     fi
 fi
 
+if echo $CONF | grep -q nvmecli; then
+    if [ ! -d nvme-cli ]; then
+        git clone "${GIT_REPO_SPDK_NVME_CLI}"
+    else
+        echo "nvme-cli already checked out. Skipping"
+    fi
+fi
+
 if echo $CONF | grep -q libiscsi; then
     # We currently don't make any changes to the libiscsi repository for our tests, but it is possible that we will need
     # to later. Cloning from git is just future proofing the machines.
@@ -367,8 +375,9 @@ SPDK_RUN_VALGRIND=1
 SPDK_TEST_UNITTEST=1
 SPDK_TEST_ISCSI=1
 SPDK_TEST_ISCSI_INITIATOR=1
+# nvme and nvme-cli cannot be run at the same time on a VM.
 SPDK_TEST_NVME=1
-SPDK_TEST_NVME_CLI=1
+SPDK_TEST_NVME_CLI=0
 SPDK_TEST_NVMF=1
 SPDK_TEST_RBD=1
 # requires some extra configuration. see TEST_ENV_SETUP_README