diff --git a/tests/vm/basevm.py b/tests/vm/basevm.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..3c863bc237
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/vm/basevm.py
@@ -0,0 +1,262 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# VM testing base class
+#
+# Copyright 2017 Red Hat Inc.
+#
+# Authors:
+#  Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
+#
+# This code is licensed under the GPL version 2 or later.  See
+# the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
+#
+
+import os
+import sys
+import logging
+import time
+import datetime
+sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "..", "scripts"))
+from qemu import QEMUMachine
+import subprocess
+import hashlib
+import optparse
+import atexit
+import tempfile
+import shutil
+import multiprocessing
+import traceback
+
+SSH_KEY = open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
+               "..", "keys", "id_rsa")).read()
+SSH_PUB_KEY = open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
+                   "..", "keys", "id_rsa.pub")).read()
+
+class BaseVM(object):
+    GUEST_USER = "qemu"
+    GUEST_PASS = "qemupass"
+    ROOT_PASS = "qemupass"
+
+    # The script to run in the guest that builds QEMU
+    BUILD_SCRIPT = ""
+    # The guest name, to be overridden by subclasses
+    name = "#base"
+    def __init__(self, debug=False, vcpus=None):
+        self._guest = None
+        self._tmpdir = os.path.realpath(tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix="vm-test-",
+                                                         suffix=".tmp",
+                                                         dir="."))
+        atexit.register(shutil.rmtree, self._tmpdir)
+
+        self._ssh_key_file = os.path.join(self._tmpdir, "id_rsa")
+        open(self._ssh_key_file, "w").write(SSH_KEY)
+        subprocess.check_call(["chmod", "600", self._ssh_key_file])
+
+        self._ssh_pub_key_file = os.path.join(self._tmpdir, "id_rsa.pub")
+        open(self._ssh_pub_key_file, "w").write(SSH_PUB_KEY)
+
+        self.debug = debug
+        self._stderr = sys.stderr
+        self._devnull = open(os.devnull, "w")
+        if self.debug:
+            self._stdout = sys.stdout
+        else:
+            self._stdout = self._devnull
+        self._args = [ \
+            "-nodefaults", "-m", "2G",
+            "-cpu", "host",
+            "-netdev", "user,id=vnet,hostfwd=:127.0.0.1:0-:22",
+            "-device", "virtio-net-pci,netdev=vnet",
+            "-vnc", "127.0.0.1:0,to=20",
+            "-serial", "file:%s" % os.path.join(self._tmpdir, "serial.out")]
+        if vcpus:
+            self._args += ["-smp", str(vcpus)]
+        if os.access("/dev/kvm", os.R_OK | os.W_OK):
+            self._args += ["-enable-kvm"]
+        else:
+            logging.info("KVM not available, not using -enable-kvm")
+        self._data_args = []
+
+    def _download_with_cache(self, url, sha256sum=None):
+        def check_sha256sum(fname):
+            if not sha256sum:
+                return True
+            checksum = subprocess.check_output(["sha256sum", fname]).split()[0]
+            return sha256sum == checksum
+
+        cache_dir = os.path.expanduser("~/.cache/qemu-vm/download")
+        if not os.path.exists(cache_dir):
+            os.makedirs(cache_dir)
+        fname = os.path.join(cache_dir, hashlib.sha1(url).hexdigest())
+        if os.path.exists(fname) and check_sha256sum(fname):
+            return fname
+        logging.debug("Downloading %s to %s...", url, fname)
+        subprocess.check_call(["wget", "-c", url, "-O", fname + ".download"],
+                              stdout=self._stdout, stderr=self._stderr)
+        os.rename(fname + ".download", fname)
+        return fname
+
+    def _ssh_do(self, user, cmd, check, interactive=False):
+        ssh_cmd = ["ssh", "-q",
+                   "-o", "StrictHostKeyChecking=no",
+                   "-o", "UserKnownHostsFile=" + os.devnull,
+                   "-o", "ConnectTimeout=1",
+                   "-p", self.ssh_port, "-i", self._ssh_key_file]
+        if interactive:
+            ssh_cmd += ['-t']
+        assert not isinstance(cmd, str)
+        ssh_cmd += ["%s@127.0.0.1" % user] + list(cmd)
+        logging.debug("ssh_cmd: %s", " ".join(ssh_cmd))
+        r = subprocess.call(ssh_cmd,
+                            stdin=sys.stdin if interactive else self._devnull,
+                            stdout=sys.stdout if interactive else self._stdout,
+                            stderr=sys.stderr if interactive else self._stderr)
+        if check and r != 0:
+            raise Exception("SSH command failed: %s" % cmd)
+        return r
+
+    def ssh(self, *cmd):
+        return self._ssh_do(self.GUEST_USER, cmd, False)
+
+    def ssh_interactive(self, *cmd):
+        return self._ssh_do(self.GUEST_USER, cmd, False, True)
+
+    def ssh_root(self, *cmd):
+        return self._ssh_do("root", cmd, False)
+
+    def ssh_check(self, *cmd):
+        self._ssh_do(self.GUEST_USER, cmd, True)
+
+    def ssh_root_check(self, *cmd):
+        self._ssh_do("root", cmd, True)
+
+    def build_image(self, img):
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    def add_source_dir(self, src_dir):
+        name = "data-" + hashlib.sha1(src_dir).hexdigest()[:5]
+        tarfile = os.path.join(self._tmpdir, name + ".tar")
+        logging.debug("Creating archive %s for src_dir dir: %s", tarfile, src_dir)
+        subprocess.check_call(["./scripts/archive-source.sh", tarfile],
+                              cwd=src_dir, stdin=self._devnull,
+                              stdout=self._stdout, stderr=self._stderr)
+        self._data_args += ["-drive",
+                            "file=%s,if=none,id=%s,cache=writeback,format=raw" % \
+                                    (tarfile, name),
+                            "-device",
+                            "virtio-blk,drive=%s,serial=%s,bootindex=1" % (name, name)]
+
+    def boot(self, img, extra_args=[]):
+        args = self._args + [
+            "-device", "VGA",
+            "-drive", "file=%s,if=none,id=drive0,cache=writeback" % img,
+            "-device", "virtio-blk,drive=drive0,bootindex=0"]
+        args += self._data_args + extra_args
+        logging.debug("QEMU args: %s", " ".join(args))
+        qemu_bin = os.environ.get("QEMU", "qemu-system-x86_64")
+        guest = QEMUMachine(binary=qemu_bin, args=args)
+        try:
+            guest.launch()
+        except:
+            logging.error("Failed to launch QEMU, command line:")
+            logging.error(" ".join([qemu_bin] + args))
+            logging.error("Log:")
+            logging.error(guest.get_log())
+            logging.error("QEMU version >= 2.10 is required")
+            raise
+        atexit.register(self.shutdown)
+        self._guest = guest
+        usernet_info = guest.qmp("human-monitor-command",
+                                 command_line="info usernet")
+        self.ssh_port = None
+        for l in usernet_info["return"].splitlines():
+            fields = l.split()
+            if "TCP[HOST_FORWARD]" in fields and "22" in fields:
+                self.ssh_port = l.split()[3]
+        if not self.ssh_port:
+            raise Exception("Cannot find ssh port from 'info usernet':\n%s" % \
+                            usernet_info)
+
+    def wait_ssh(self, seconds=120):
+        starttime = datetime.datetime.now()
+        guest_up = False
+        while (datetime.datetime.now() - starttime).total_seconds() < seconds:
+            if self.ssh("exit 0") == 0:
+                guest_up = True
+                break
+            time.sleep(1)
+        if not guest_up:
+            raise Exception("Timeout while waiting for guest ssh")
+
+    def shutdown(self):
+        self._guest.shutdown()
+
+    def wait(self):
+        self._guest.wait()
+
+    def qmp(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        return self._guest.qmp(*args, **kwargs)
+
+def parse_args(vm_name):
+    parser = optparse.OptionParser(
+        description="VM test utility.  Exit codes: "
+                    "0 = success, "
+                    "1 = command line error, "
+                    "2 = environment initialization failed, "
+                    "3 = test command failed")
+    parser.add_option("--debug", "-D", action="store_true",
+                      help="enable debug output")
+    parser.add_option("--image", "-i", default="%s.img" % vm_name,
+                      help="image file name")
+    parser.add_option("--force", "-f", action="store_true",
+                      help="force build image even if image exists")
+    parser.add_option("--jobs", type=int, default=multiprocessing.cpu_count() / 2,
+                      help="number of virtual CPUs")
+    parser.add_option("--build-image", "-b", action="store_true",
+                      help="build image")
+    parser.add_option("--build-qemu",
+                      help="build QEMU from source in guest")
+    parser.add_option("--interactive", "-I", action="store_true",
+                      help="Interactively run command")
+    parser.disable_interspersed_args()
+    return parser.parse_args()
+
+def main(vmcls):
+    try:
+        args, argv = parse_args(vmcls.name)
+        if not argv and not args.build_qemu and not args.build_image:
+            print "Nothing to do?"
+            return 1
+        if args.debug:
+            logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+        vm = vmcls(debug=args.debug, vcpus=args.jobs)
+        if args.build_image:
+            if os.path.exists(args.image) and not args.force:
+                sys.stderr.writelines(["Image file exists: %s\n" % args.image,
+                                      "Use --force option to overwrite\n"])
+                return 1
+            return vm.build_image(args.image)
+        if args.build_qemu:
+            vm.add_source_dir(args.build_qemu)
+            cmd = [vm.BUILD_SCRIPT.format(
+                   configure_opts = " ".join(argv),
+                   jobs=args.jobs)]
+        else:
+            cmd = argv
+        vm.boot(args.image + ",snapshot=on")
+        vm.wait_ssh()
+    except Exception as e:
+        if isinstance(e, SystemExit) and e.code == 0:
+            return 0
+        sys.stderr.write("Failed to prepare guest environment\n")
+        traceback.print_exc()
+        return 2
+
+    if args.interactive:
+        if vm.ssh_interactive(*cmd) == 0:
+            return 0
+        vm.ssh_interactive()
+        return 3
+    else:
+        if vm.ssh(*cmd) != 0:
+            return 3