diff --git a/nixos/tests/ec2.nix b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
index 1296ff4e8e30..9d9bac85a310 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
@@ -9,9 +9,11 @@ let
     (import ../lib/eval-config.nix {
       inherit system;
       modules = [
-        ../maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-hvm-config.nix
+        ../maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-image.nix
         ../../nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
-        { boot.initrd.kernelModules = [ "virtio" "virtio_blk" "virtio_pci" "virtio_ring" ]; }
+        { boot.initrd.kernelModules = [ "virtio" "virtio_blk" "virtio_pci" "virtio_ring" ];
+          ec2.hvm = true;
+        }
       ];
     }).config.system.build.amazonImage;
 
@@ -34,41 +36,48 @@ let
       nodes = {};
       testScript =
         ''
-          use File::Temp qw/ tempfile /;
-          my ($fh, $filename) = tempfile();
+          my $imageDir = ($ENV{'TMPDIR'} // "/tmp") . "/vm-state-machine";
+          mkdir $imageDir, 0700;
+          my $diskImage = "$imageDir/machine.qcow2";
+          system("qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=${image}/nixos.img $diskImage") == 0 or die;
 
-          `qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=${image}/nixos.img $filename`;
-
-          my $startCommand = "qemu-kvm -m 768 -net nic -net 'user,net=169.254.0.0/16,guestfwd=tcp:169.254.169.254:80-cmd:${pkgs.micro-httpd}/bin/micro_httpd ${metaData}'";
-          $startCommand .= " -drive file=" . Cwd::abs_path($filename) . ",if=virtio,werror=report";
+          # Note: we use net=169.0.0.0/8 rather than
+          # net=169.254.0.0/16 to prevent dhcpcd from getting horribly
+          # confused. (It would get a DHCP lease in the 169.254.*
+          # range, which it would then configure and prompty delete
+          # again when it deletes link-local addresses.) Ideally we'd
+          # turn off the DHCP server, but qemu does not have an option
+          # to do that.
+          my $startCommand = "qemu-kvm -m 768 -net nic -net 'user,net=169.0.0.0/8,guestfwd=tcp:169.254.169.254:80-cmd:${pkgs.micro-httpd}/bin/micro_httpd ${metaData}'";
+          $startCommand .= " -drive file=$diskImage,if=virtio,werror=report";
           $startCommand .= " \$QEMU_OPTS";
 
           my $machine = createMachine({ startCommand => $startCommand });
+
           ${script}
         '';
     };
 
-  snakeOilPrivateKey = [
-    "-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----"
-    "MHcCAQEEIHQf/khLvYrQ8IOika5yqtWvI0oquHlpRLTZiJy5dRJmoAoGCCqGSM49"
-    "AwEHoUQDQgAEKF0DYGbBwbj06tA3fd/+yP44cvmwmHBWXZCKbS+RQlAKvLXMWkpN"
-    "r1lwMyJZoSGgBHoUahoYjTh9/sJL7XLJtA=="
-    "-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----"
-  ];
+  snakeOilPrivateKey = ''
+    -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
+    b3BlbnNzaC1rZXktdjEAAAAABG5vbmUAAAAEbm9uZQAAAAAAAAABAAAAMwAAAAtzc2gtZW
+    QyNTUxOQAAACDEPmwZv5dDPrMUaq0dDP+6eBTTe+QNrz14KBEIdhHd1QAAAJDufJ4S7nye
+    EgAAAAtzc2gtZWQyNTUxOQAAACDEPmwZv5dDPrMUaq0dDP+6eBTTe+QNrz14KBEIdhHd1Q
+    AAAECgwbDlYATM5/jypuptb0GF/+zWZcJfoVIFBG3LQeRyGsQ+bBm/l0M+sxRqrR0M/7p4
+    FNN75A2vPXgoEQh2Ed3VAAAADEVDMiB0ZXN0IGtleQE=
+    -----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
+  '';
+
+  snakeOilPublicKey = "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIMQ+bBm/l0M+sxRqrR0M/7p4FNN75A2vPXgoEQh2Ed3V EC2 test key";
 
-  snakeOilPublicKey = pkgs.lib.concatStrings [
-    "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHA"
-    "yNTYAAABBBChdA2BmwcG49OrQN33f/sj+OHL5sJhwVl2Qim0vkUJQCry1zFpKTa"
-    "9ZcDMiWaEhoAR6FGoaGI04ff7CS+1yybQ= snakeoil"
-  ];
 in {
   boot-ec2-nixops = makeEc2Test {
     name         = "nixops-userdata";
     sshPublicKey = snakeOilPublicKey; # That's right folks! My user's key is also the host key!
 
     userData = ''
-      SSH_HOST_DSA_KEY_PUB:${snakeOilPublicKey}
-      SSH_HOST_DSA_KEY:${pkgs.lib.concatStringsSep "|" snakeOilPrivateKey}
+      SSH_HOST_ED25519_KEY_PUB:${snakeOilPublicKey}
+      SSH_HOST_ED25519_KEY:${replaceStrings ["\n"] ["|"] snakeOilPrivateKey}
     '';
     script = ''
       $machine->start;
@@ -80,8 +89,9 @@ in {
 
       # Let's install our client private key
       $machine->succeed("mkdir -p ~/.ssh");
-      ${concatMapStrings (s: "$machine->succeed('echo ${s} >> ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa');") snakeOilPrivateKey}
-      $machine->succeed("chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa");
+
+      $machine->succeed("echo '${snakeOilPrivateKey}' > ~/.ssh/id_ed25519");
+      $machine->succeed("chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519");
 
       # We haven't configured the host key yet, so this should still fail
       $machine->fail("ssh -o BatchMode=yes localhost exit");