diff --git a/src/vm/test/VirtualMachinePoolTest.cc b/src/vm/test/VirtualMachinePoolTest.cc
index d87f1104ae..9c4bcf27bb 100644
--- a/src/vm/test/VirtualMachinePoolTest.cc
+++ b/src/vm/test/VirtualMachinePoolTest.cc
@@ -146,9 +146,19 @@ protected:
         CPPUNIT_ASSERT( ((VirtualMachine*)obj)->get_name() == names[index] );
         CPPUNIT_ASSERT( xml_str == xmls[index]);
     };
-    
-    void set_up_user_pool()
+
+void set_up_user_pool()
     {
+
+        // The UserPool constructor checks if the DB contains at least
+        // one user, and adds one automatically from the ONE_AUTH file.
+        // So the ONE_AUTH environment is forced to point to a test one_auth
+        // file.
+        ostringstream oss;
+
+        oss << getenv("PWD") << "/one_auth";
+        setenv("ONE_AUTH", oss.str().c_str(), 1);
+
         UserPool::bootstrap(db);
         UserPool * user_pool = new UserPool(db);
         int uid_1, uid_2;
diff --git a/src/vm/test/one_auth b/src/vm/test/one_auth
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2f55c9c47b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/vm/test/one_auth
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+one_user_test:password