diff --git a/test/vhost/other/conf.json b/test/vhost/other/conf.json
deleted file mode 100644
index b3e08b4ed..000000000
--- a/test/vhost/other/conf.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "subsystems": [
-    {
-      "subsystem": "accel",
-      "config": null
-    },
-    {
-      "subsystem": "interface",
-      "config": null
-    },
-    {
-      "subsystem": "net_framework",
-      "config": null
-    },
-    {
-      "subsystem": "bdev",
-      "config": [
-        {
-          "params": {
-            "block_size": 4096,
-            "num_blocks": 32768
-          },
-          "method": "bdev_malloc_create"
-        },
-        {
-          "params": {
-            "block_size": 4096,
-            "num_blocks": 32768
-          },
-          "method": "bdev_malloc_create"
-        }
-      ]
-    },
-    {
-      "subsystem": "nbd",
-      "config": []
-    },
-    {
-      "subsystem": "scsi",
-      "config": null
-    }
-  ]
-}
diff --git a/test/vhost/other/negative.sh b/test/vhost/other/negative.sh
index 829dceeca..34b53ec04 100755
--- a/test/vhost/other/negative.sh
+++ b/test/vhost/other/negative.sh
@@ -67,9 +67,10 @@ notice ""
 notice "running SPDK"
 notice ""
 vhost_run 0
-vhost_load_config 0 $testdir/conf.json
 notice ""
 rpc_py="$rootdir/scripts/rpc.py -s $(get_vhost_dir 0)/rpc.sock"
+$rpc_py bdev_malloc_create -b Malloc0 128 4096
+$rpc_py bdev_malloc_create -b Malloc1 128 4096
 
 # Try to get nonexistent vhost controller
 if $rpc_py vhost_get_controllers -n nonexistent; then