diff --git a/.gitlab/.perf-able-gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab/.perf-able-gitlab-ci.yml
index 8788e96bf..b3c94f973 100644
--- a/.gitlab/.perf-able-gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/.perf-able-gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -16,10 +16,6 @@ perf_able:
     - fbsmoke
   before_script:
     - apt-get update && apt-get install -y gnupg software-properties-common curl git
-    - apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys C5AD17C747E3415A3642D57D77C6C491D6AC1D69
-    - echo "deb https://dl.k6.io/deb stable main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/k6.list
-    - apt-get update
-    - apt-get install k6
     - curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | apt-key add -
     - apt-add-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main"
     - apt-get update && apt-get install terraform
@@ -46,8 +42,6 @@ perf_able:
   script:
     - ./qa/scripts/perf/able/ableSetup.sh
     - ./qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTest.sh
-    - echo "executing local k6 in k6 container..."
-    - k6 run ./qa/scripts/perf/able/script.js
   after_script:
     - ./qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTeardown.sh
   needs:
diff --git a/qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTest.sh b/qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTest.sh
index d414545e4..fc59c6425 100755
--- a/qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTest.sh
+++ b/qa/scripts/perf/able/ableTest.sh
@@ -8,5 +8,29 @@ echo "using INGESTNODE0 ${INGESTNODE0}"
 DATANODE0=$(cat ./qa/tf/gauntlet/able/outputs.json | jq -r '[.data_node_ips][0]["value"][0]')
 echo "using DATANODE0 ${DATANODE0}"
 
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0} "sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys C5AD17C747E3415A3642D57D77C6C491D6AC1D69"
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0} "echo 'deb https://dl.k6.io/deb stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/k6.list"
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0} "sudo apt-get update"
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0} "sudo apt-get install k6"
 
-echo "Done."
\ No newline at end of file
+echo "Copying tests to remote"
+scp -r -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem ./qa/scripts/perf/able/*.js ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0}:/data
+if (( $? != 0 )) 
+then 
+    echo "Copy failed"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# run smoke test
+echo "Running smoke test..."
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${INGESTNODE0} "k6 run /data/script.js" 
+ABLETESTRESULT=$?
+
+if (( $ABLETESTRESULT != 0 )) 
+then 
+    echo "able perf test complete with failures"
+else
+    echo "able test complete"
+fi
+
+exit $ABLETESTRESULT 
\ No newline at end of file