diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d7356ece0..15cd5096c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ pilosa
 launch.json
 .terraform.lock.hcl
 __pycache__/
+report.xml
diff --git a/qa/scripts/setupSmokeTest.sh b/qa/scripts/setupSmokeTest.sh
index 09e178668..0244ae7ae 100755
--- a/qa/scripts/setupSmokeTest.sh
+++ b/qa/scripts/setupSmokeTest.sh
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ do
     break
     echo "Cluster is up after $${i} tries." 
   fi
-  sleep 20
+  sleep 10
 done
 
 
diff --git a/qa/scripts/testSmokeTest.sh b/qa/scripts/testSmokeTest.sh
index 2d6b5892b..089fd6ea2 100755
--- a/qa/scripts/testSmokeTest.sh
+++ b/qa/scripts/testSmokeTest.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,22 @@ echo "using bastion ${BASTION}"
 NODE=$(cat ./qa/tf/ci/smoketest/outputs.json | jq -r '[.data_node_ips][0]["value"][0]')
 echo "using node ${NODE}"
 
+echo "Copying tests to remote"
+scp -r -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem ./qa/testcases/smoketest ec2-user@${BASTION}:/data
+if (( $? != 0 )) 
+then 
+    echo "Copy failed"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# run smoke test
+echo "Running smoke test..."
+ssh -A -i ~/.ssh/gitlab-featurebase-ci.pem -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" ec2-user@${BASTION} " pushd /data; pytest --junitxml=report.xml; popd" 
+if (( $? != 0 )) 
+then 
+    echo "Unable to run smoketest"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 
 echo "Smoke test complete"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/qa/testcases/smoketest/test_smoke.py b/qa/testcases/smoketest/test_smoke.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ba45124ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/testcases/smoketest/test_smoke.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# content of test_smoke.py
+def inc(x):
+    return x + 1
+
+
+def test_answer():
+    assert inc(3) == 5
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/qa/tf/.modules/featurebase-cluster/setup_ingest_node.sh.tpl b/qa/tf/.modules/featurebase-cluster/setup_ingest_node.sh.tpl
index 1e93149b1..51c98d65f 100644
--- a/qa/tf/.modules/featurebase-cluster/setup_ingest_node.sh.tpl
+++ b/qa/tf/.modules/featurebase-cluster/setup_ingest_node.sh.tpl
@@ -62,5 +62,11 @@ sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1 /data
 
 sudo chown -R ec2-user /data
 
+echo "Installing pytest"
+pip3 install -U pytest
+pip3 install -U requests
+
+echo "Done."
+