diff --git a/test/external_code/test_make.sh b/test/external_code/test_make.sh
index 23be4dba3..30beb01c9 100755
--- a/test/external_code/test_make.sh
+++ b/test/external_code/test_make.sh
@@ -14,8 +14,11 @@ fi
 
 sudo HUGEMEM="$EXTERNAL_MAKE_HUGEMEM" $SPDK_DIR/scripts/setup.sh
 
+if [ -n "$SPDK_RUN_EXTERNAL_DPDK" ]; then
+	WITH_DPDK="--with-dpdk=$SPDK_RUN_EXTERNAL_DPDK"
+fi
 make -C $SPDK_DIR clean
-$SPDK_DIR/configure --with-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan
+$SPDK_DIR/configure --with-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
 make -C $SPDK_DIR -j$(nproc)
 
 export SPDK_HEADER_DIR="$SPDK_DIR/include"
@@ -57,7 +60,7 @@ run_test "external_run_nvme_shared" $test_root/nvme/identify.sh
 make -C $test_root clean
 
 make -C $SPDK_DIR clean
-$SPDK_DIR/configure --without-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan
+$SPDK_DIR/configure --without-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
 make -C $SPDK_DIR -j$(nproc)
 
 # Make both the application and bdev against individual SPDK archives.