diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8ab081052
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*.qcow2 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
diff --git a/client/driver/qemu_test.go b/client/driver/qemu_test.go
index 9dbfde76a..b3d442b09 100644
--- a/client/driver/qemu_test.go
+++ b/client/driver/qemu_test.go
@@ -1,14 +1,17 @@
 package driver
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
-	"os"
+	"net"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/hashicorp/consul/lib/freeport"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/nomad/client/config"
 	cstructs "github.com/hashicorp/nomad/client/structs"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/nomad/nomad/structs"
@@ -134,45 +137,49 @@ func TestQemuDriver_StartOpen_Wait(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestQemuDriver_GracefulShutdown(t *testing.T) {
-	logger := testLogger()
+	testutil.SkipSlow(t)
 	if !testutil.IsTravis() {
 		t.Parallel()
 	}
 	ctestutils.QemuCompatible(t)
-	ctestutils.RequireRoot(t)
+
+	logger := testLogger()
+
+	// Graceful shutdown may be really slow unfortunately
+	killTimeout := 3 * time.Minute
+
+	// Grab a free port so we can tell when the image has started
+	port := freeport.GetT(t, 1)[0]
+
 	task := &structs.Task{
-		Name:   "linux",
+		Name:   "alpine-shutdown-test",
 		Driver: "qemu",
 		Config: map[string]interface{}{
-			"image_path":        "linux-0.2.img",
-			"accelerator":       "tcg",
+			"image_path":        "alpine.qcow2",
 			"graceful_shutdown": true,
+			"args":              []string{"-nodefconfig", "-nodefaults"},
 			"port_map": []map[string]int{{
-				"main": 22,
-				"web":  8080,
+				"ssh": 22,
 			}},
-			"args": []string{"-nodefconfig", "-nodefaults"},
 		},
-		// With the use of tcg acceleration, it's very unlikely a qemu instance
-		// will boot (and gracefully halt) in a reasonable amount of time, so
-		// this timeout is kept low to reduce test execution time.
-		KillTimeout: time.Duration(1 * time.Second),
 		LogConfig: &structs.LogConfig{
 			MaxFiles:      10,
 			MaxFileSizeMB: 10,
 		},
 		Resources: &structs.Resources{
-			CPU:      500,
-			MemoryMB: 512,
+			CPU:      1000,
+			MemoryMB: 256,
 			Networks: []*structs.NetworkResource{
 				{
-					ReservedPorts: []structs.Port{{Label: "main", Value: 22000}, {Label: "web", Value: 80}},
+					ReservedPorts: []structs.Port{{Label: "ssh", Value: port}},
 				},
 			},
 		},
+		KillTimeout: killTimeout,
 	}
 
 	ctx := testDriverContexts(t, task)
+	ctx.DriverCtx.config.MaxKillTimeout = killTimeout
 	defer ctx.AllocDir.Destroy()
 	d := NewQemuDriver(ctx.DriverCtx)
 
@@ -189,7 +196,7 @@ func TestQemuDriver_GracefulShutdown(t *testing.T) {
 
 	dst := ctx.ExecCtx.TaskDir.Dir
 
-	copyFile("./test-resources/qemu/linux-0.2.img", filepath.Join(dst, "linux-0.2.img"), t)
+	copyFile("./test-resources/qemu/alpine.qcow2", filepath.Join(dst, "alpine.qcow2"), t)
 
 	if _, err := d.Prestart(ctx.ExecCtx, task); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Prestart failed: %v", err)
@@ -202,26 +209,46 @@ func TestQemuDriver_GracefulShutdown(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// Clean up
 	defer func() {
+		select {
+		case <-resp.Handle.WaitCh():
+			// Already exited
+			return
+		default:
+		}
+
 		if err := resp.Handle.Kill(); err != nil {
-			logger.Printf("Error killing Qemu test: %s", err)
+			logger.Printf("[TEST] Error killing Qemu test: %s", err)
 		}
 	}()
 
-	// The monitor socket will not exist immediately, so we'll wait up to
-	// 5 seconds for it to become available.
-	monitorPath := fmt.Sprintf("%s/linux/%s", ctx.AllocDir.AllocDir, qemuMonitorSocketName)
-	monitorPathExists := false
-	for i := 0; i < 100; i++ {
-		if _, err := os.Stat(monitorPath); !os.IsNotExist(err) {
-			logger.Printf("monitor socket exists at %q\n", monitorPath)
-			monitorPathExists = true
-			break
+	// Wait until sshd starts before attempting to do a graceful shutdown
+	testutil.WaitForResult(func() (bool, error) {
+		conn, err := net.Dial("tcp", net.JoinHostPort("127.0.0.1", strconv.Itoa(port)))
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, err
 		}
-		time.Sleep(200 * time.Millisecond)
-	}
-	if monitorPathExists == false {
-		t.Fatalf("monitor socket did not exist after waiting 20 seconds")
-	}
+
+		// Since the connection will be accepted by the QEMU process
+		// before sshd actually starts, we need to block until we can
+		// read the "SSH" magic bytes
+		header := make([]byte, 3)
+		conn.SetReadDeadline(time.Now().Add(10 * time.Second))
+		_, err = conn.Read(header)
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		}
+		if !bytes.Equal(header, []byte{'S', 'S', 'H'}) {
+			return false, fmt.Errorf("expected 'SSH' but received: %q %v", string(header), header)
+		}
+
+		logger.Printf("[TEST] connected to sshd in VM")
+		conn.Close()
+		return true, nil
+	}, func(err error) {
+		t.Fatalf("failed to connect to sshd in VM: %v", err)
+	})
+
+	monitorPath := filepath.Join(ctx.AllocDir.AllocDir, task.Name, qemuMonitorSocketName)
 
 	// userPid supplied in sendQemuShutdown calls is bogus (it's used only
 	// for log output)
@@ -236,6 +263,13 @@ func TestQemuDriver_GracefulShutdown(t *testing.T) {
 	if err := sendQemuShutdown(ctx.DriverCtx.logger, monitorPath, 0); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("unexpected error from sendQemuShutdown: %s", err)
 	}
+
+	select {
+	case <-resp.Handle.WaitCh():
+		logger.Printf("[TEST] VM exited gracefully as expected")
+	case <-time.After(killTimeout):
+		t.Fatalf("VM did not exit gracefully exit before timeout: %s", killTimeout)
+	}
 }
 
 func TestQemuDriverUser(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/README.md b/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ccfa25ff3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# QEMU Test Images
+
+## `linux-0.2.img`
+
+via https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/Images
+
+Does not support graceful shutdown.
+
+## Alpine
+
+```
+qemu-img create -fmt qcow2 alpine.qcow2 8G
+
+# Download virtual x86_64 Alpine image https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/
+qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom path/to/alpine.iso -hda alpine.qcow2 -boot d -net nic -net user -m 256 -localtime
+
+# In the guest run setup-alpine and exit when complete
+
+# Boot again with:
+qemu-system-x86_64 alpine.qcow2
+```
diff --git a/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/alpine.qcow2 b/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/alpine.qcow2
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6c680469c
Binary files /dev/null and b/client/driver/test-resources/qemu/alpine.qcow2 differ
diff --git a/scripts/travis.sh b/scripts/travis.sh
index 8e500f793..541bbb587 100755
--- a/scripts/travis.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ if [ "$RUN_STATIC_CHECKS" ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-make test
+NOMAD_SLOW_TEST=1 make test
 TEST_OUTPUT=$?
 
 kill $PING_LOOP_PID
diff --git a/testutil/slow.go b/testutil/slow.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1a8088024
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testutil/slow.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package testutil
+
+import (
+	"os"
+
+	testing "github.com/mitchellh/go-testing-interface"
+)
+
+// SkipSlow skips a slow test unless the NOMAD_SLOW_TEST environment variable
+// is set.
+func SkipSlow(t testing.T) {
+	if os.Getenv("NOMAD_SLOW_TEST") == "" {
+		t.Skip("Skipping slow test. Set NOMAD_SLOW_TEST=1 to run.")
+	}
+}