diff --git a/test/vhost/common.sh b/test/vhost/common.sh
index 68303726d..3c5c600f5 100644
--- a/test/vhost/common.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/common.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ TARGET_DIR=$VHOST_DIR/vhost
 VM_PASSWORD="root"
 
 VM_IMAGE=${VM_IMAGE:-"$DEPENDENCY_DIR/spdk_test_image.qcow2"}
+DEFAULT_FIO_BIN=${DEFAULT_FIO_BIN:-"$DEPENDENCY_DIR/fio"}
+FIO_BIN=${FIO_BIN:-"$DEFAULT_FIO_BIN"}
+
+WORKDIR=$(readlink -f "$(dirname "$0")")
 
 if ! hash $QEMU_IMG_BIN $QEMU_BIN; then
 	error 'QEMU is not installed on this system. Unable to run vhost tests.'
diff --git a/test/vhost/lvol/lvol_test.sh b/test/vhost/lvol/lvol_test.sh
index 6920eff87..fda77acc7 100755
--- a/test/vhost/lvol/lvol_test.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/lvol/lvol_test.sh
@@ -76,7 +76,6 @@ vhosttestinit
 
 spdk_mask=$vhost_0_reactor_mask
 if $distribute_cores; then
-	# FIXME: this need to be handled entirely in common.sh
 	source $testdir/autotest.config
 	# Adjust the mask so vhost runs on separate cpus than qemu instances.
 	# We know that .config sets qemus to run on single cpu so simply take
diff --git a/test/vhost/manual.sh b/test/vhost/manual.sh
index 5cdb8a453..1d6da4732 100755
--- a/test/vhost/manual.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/manual.sh
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@ rootdir=$(readlink -f $testdir/../..)
 source $rootdir/test/common/autotest_common.sh
 source $rootdir/test/vhost/common.sh
 
-DEFAULT_FIO_BIN="$DEPENDENCY_DIR/fio"
-
 case $1 in
 	-h | --help)
 		echo "usage: $(basename $0) TEST_TYPE"
@@ -35,11 +33,8 @@ if [[ $(uname -s) != Linux ]]; then
 	exit 0
 fi
 
-: ${FIO_BIN="$DEFAULT_FIO_BIN"}
 vhosttestinit
 
-WORKDIR=$(readlink -f $(dirname $0))
-
 case $1 in
 	-hp | --hotplug)
 		echo 'Running hotplug tests suite...'
diff --git a/test/vhost/vhost.sh b/test/vhost/vhost.sh
index 616d3224a..4d6deabbc 100755
--- a/test/vhost/vhost.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/vhost.sh
@@ -12,13 +12,8 @@ if [[ $(uname -s) != Linux ]]; then
 	exit 0
 fi
 
-DEFAULT_FIO_BIN="$DEPENDENCY_DIR/fio"
-
-: ${FIO_BIN="$DEFAULT_FIO_BIN"}
 vhosttestinit
 
-WORKDIR=$(readlink -f $(dirname $0))
-
 run_test "vhost_negative" $WORKDIR/other/negative.sh
 
 run_test "vhost_boot" $WORKDIR/vhost_boot/vhost_boot.sh --vm_image=$VM_IMAGE