diff --git a/nixos/lib/test-driver/Machine.pm b/nixos/lib/test-driver/Machine.pm
index 6df8ddb9e957..41088ed75f7e 100644
--- a/nixos/lib/test-driver/Machine.pm
+++ b/nixos/lib/test-driver/Machine.pm
@@ -43,8 +43,6 @@ sub new {
         $startCommand .= "-bios $args->{bios} "
             if defined $args->{bios};
         $startCommand .= $args->{qemuFlags} || "";
-    } else {
-        $startCommand = Cwd::abs_path $startCommand;
     }
 
     my $tmpDir = $ENV{'TMPDIR'} || "/tmp";
diff --git a/nixos/maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-base-config.nix b/nixos/maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-base-config.nix
index d23f15e828b2..097d722554cf 100644
--- a/nixos/maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-base-config.nix
+++ b/nixos/maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-base-config.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { modulesPath, ...}:
 {
-  imports = [ "${modulesPath}/virtualisation/amazon-config.nix" ];
+  imports = [ "${modulesPath}/virtualisation/amazon-image.nix" ];
   services.journald.rateLimitBurst = 0;
 }
diff --git a/nixos/release.nix b/nixos/release.nix
index 51a58da4454d..103bf9b2c5b4 100644
--- a/nixos/release.nix
+++ b/nixos/release.nix
@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ in rec {
   tests.docker = hydraJob (import tests/docker.nix { system = "x86_64-linux"; });
   tests.dockerRegistry = hydraJob (import tests/docker-registry.nix { system = "x86_64-linux"; });
   tests.etcd = hydraJob (import tests/etcd.nix { system = "x86_64-linux"; });
+  tests.ec2 = hydraJob (import tests/ec2.nix { system = "x86_64-linux"; }).bootEc2NixOps;
   tests.firefox = callTest tests/firefox.nix {};
   tests.firewall = callTest tests/firewall.nix {};
   tests.fleet = hydraJob (import tests/fleet.nix { system = "x86_64-linux"; });
diff --git a/nixos/tests/ec2.nix b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7ea9b3d07f72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/ec2.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
+
+with import ../lib/testing.nix { inherit system; };
+with import ../lib/qemu-flags.nix;
+with pkgs.lib;
+
+let
+  image =
+    (import ../lib/eval-config.nix {
+      inherit system;
+      modules = [
+        ../maintainers/scripts/ec2/amazon-hvm-config.nix
+        ../../nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
+        { boot.initrd.kernelModules = [ "virtio" "virtio_blk" "virtio_pci" "virtio_ring" ]; }
+      ];
+    }).config.system.build.amazonImage;
+
+  makeEc2Test = { name, userData, script, hostname ? "ec2-instance", sshPublicKey ? null }:
+    let
+      metaData = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
+        name = "metadata";
+        buildCommand = ''
+          mkdir -p $out/2011-01-01
+          ln -s ${pkgs.writeText "userData" userData} $out/2011-01-01/user-data
+          mkdir -p $out/1.0/meta-data
+          echo "${hostname}" > $out/1.0/meta-data/hostname
+        '' + optionalString (sshPublicKey != null) ''
+          mkdir -p $out/1.0/meta-data/public-keys/0
+          ln -s ${pkgs.writeText "sshPublicKey" sshPublicKey} $out/1.0/meta-data/public-keys/0/openssh-key
+        '';
+      };
+    in makeTest {
+      name = "ec2-" + name;
+      nodes = {};
+      testScript =
+        ''
+          use File::Temp qw/ tempfile /;
+          my ($fh, $filename) = tempfile();
+
+          `qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=${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";
+          $startCommand .= " \$QEMU_OPTS";
+
+          my $machine = createMachine({ startCommand => $startCommand });
+          ${script}
+        '';
+    };
+
+  snakeOilPrivateKey = [
+    "-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----"
+    "MHcCAQEEIHQf/khLvYrQ8IOika5yqtWvI0oquHlpRLTZiJy5dRJmoAoGCCqGSM49"
+    "AwEHoUQDQgAEKF0DYGbBwbj06tA3fd/+yP44cvmwmHBWXZCKbS+RQlAKvLXMWkpN"
+    "r1lwMyJZoSGgBHoUahoYjTh9/sJL7XLJtA=="
+    "-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----"
+  ];
+
+  snakeOilPublicKey = pkgs.lib.concatStrings [
+    "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHA"
+    "yNTYAAABBBChdA2BmwcG49OrQN33f/sj+OHL5sJhwVl2Qim0vkUJQCry1zFpKTa"
+    "9ZcDMiWaEhoAR6FGoaGI04ff7CS+1yybQ= snakeoil"
+  ];
+in {
+  bootEc2NixOps = makeEc2Test {
+    name         = "nixops-userdata";
+    sshPublicKey = snakeOilPublicKey; # That's right folks! My user's key is also the host key!
+
+    userData = ''
+      SSH_HOST_DSA_KEY_PUB:${snakeOilPublicKey}
+      SSH_HOST_DSA_KEY:${pkgs.lib.concatStringsSep "|" snakeOilPrivateKey}
+    '';
+    script = ''
+      $machine->start;
+      $machine->waitForFile("/root/user-data");
+      $machine->waitForUnit("sshd.service");
+
+      # We have no keys configured on the client side yet, so this should fail
+      $machine->fail("ssh -o BatchMode=yes localhost exit");
+
+      # 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");
+
+      # We haven't configured the host key yet, so this should still fail
+      $machine->fail("ssh -o BatchMode=yes localhost exit");
+
+      # Add the host key; ssh should finally succeed
+      $machine->succeed("echo localhost,127.0.0.1 ${snakeOilPublicKey} > ~/.ssh/known_hosts");
+      $machine->succeed("ssh -o BatchMode=yes localhost exit");
+
+      $machine->shutdown;
+    '';
+  };
+}