diff --git a/lib/env_dpdk/init.c b/lib/env_dpdk/init.c
index eba9b29eb..11c8a9485 100644
--- a/lib/env_dpdk/init.c
+++ b/lib/env_dpdk/init.c
@@ -302,6 +302,21 @@ spdk_build_eal_cmdline(const struct spdk_env_opts *opts)
 		}
 	}
 
+	/* Lower default EAL loglevel to RTE_LOG_NOTICE - normal, but significant messages.
+	 * This can be overridden by specifying the same option in opts->env_context
+	 */
+	args = spdk_push_arg(args, &argcount, strdup("--log-level=lib.eal:6"));
+	if (args == NULL) {
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	if (opts->env_context) {
+		args = spdk_push_arg(args, &argcount, strdup(opts->env_context));
+		if (args == NULL) {
+			return -1;
+		}
+	}
+
 #ifdef __linux__
 	/* Set the base virtual address - it must be an address that is not in the
 	 * ASAN shadow region, otherwise ASAN-enabled builds will ignore the
@@ -416,8 +431,5 @@ spdk_env_init(const struct spdk_env_opts *opts)
 		spdk_env_unlink_shared_files();
 	}
 
-	/* Print only the significant EAL messages */
-	rte_log_set_level(RTE_LOGTYPE_EAL, RTE_LOG_NOTICE);
-
 	return spdk_env_dpdk_post_init();
 }
diff --git a/test/env/vtophys/vtophys.c b/test/env/vtophys/vtophys.c
index 62c9f5cc0..62ae0828d 100644
--- a/test/env/vtophys/vtophys.c
+++ b/test/env/vtophys/vtophys.c
@@ -33,11 +33,16 @@
 
 #include "spdk/stdinc.h"
 
+#include "spdk/config.h"
 #include "spdk/env.h"
 #include "spdk/util.h"
 
 #include "CUnit/Basic.h"
 
+#define __SPDK_ENV_NAME(path)	(strrchr(#path, '/') + 1)
+#define _SPDK_ENV_NAME(path)	__SPDK_ENV_NAME(path)
+#define SPDK_ENV_NAME		_SPDK_ENV_NAME(SPDK_CONFIG_ENV)
+
 static void
 vtophys_malloc_test(void)
 {
@@ -156,6 +161,10 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 	spdk_env_opts_init(&opts);
 	opts.name = "vtophys";
 	opts.core_mask = "0x1";
+	if (strcmp(SPDK_ENV_NAME, "env_dpdk") == 0) {
+		opts.env_context = "--log-level=lib.eal:8";
+	}
+
 	if (spdk_env_init(&opts) < 0) {
 		printf("Err: Unable to initialize SPDK env\n");
 		return 1;