diff --git a/tests/assets/default.conf b/tests/assets/default.conf
index c6ae1078e..15d70ffbd 100644
--- a/tests/assets/default.conf
+++ b/tests/assets/default.conf
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ vm-enabled no
 # *** WARNING *** if you are using a shared hosting the default of putting
 # the swap file under /tmp is not secure. Create a dir with access granted
 # only to Redis user and configure Redis to create the swap file there.
-vm-swap-file /tmp/redis.swap
+vm-swap-file redis.swap
 
 # vm-max-memory configures the VM to use at max the specified amount of
 # RAM. Everything that deos not fit will be swapped on disk *if* possible, that
@@ -249,12 +249,8 @@ vm-page-size 32
 #
 # The total swap size is vm-page-size * vm-pages
 #
-# With the default of 32-bytes memory pages and 134217728 pages Redis will
-# use a 4 GB swap file, that will use 16 MB of RAM for the page table.
-#
-# It's better to use the smallest acceptable value for your application,
-# but the default is large in order to work in most conditions.
-vm-pages 134217728
+# 32M swap should be enough for testing.
+vm-pages 1048576
 
 # Max number of VM I/O threads running at the same time.
 # This threads are used to read/write data from/to swap file, since they
diff --git a/tests/support/server.tcl b/tests/support/server.tcl
index 8664b9a43..18728f912 100644
--- a/tests/support/server.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/server.tcl
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ proc kill_server config {
         if {[incr wait 10] % 1000 == 0} {
             puts "Waiting for process $pid to exit..."
         }
-        exec kill $pid
+        catch {exec kill $pid}
         after 10
     }
 }
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ proc is_alive config {
     }
 }
 
+set ::global_overrides {}
 proc start_server {filename overrides {code undefined}} {
     set data [split [exec cat "tests/assets/$filename"] "\n"]
     set config {}
@@ -58,8 +59,8 @@ proc start_server {filename overrides {code undefined}} {
     # start every server on a different port
     dict set config port [incr ::port]
 
-    # apply overrides from arguments
-    foreach override $overrides {
+    # apply overrides from global space and arguments
+    foreach override [concat $::global_overrides $overrides] {
         set directive [lrange $override 0 0]
         set arguments [lrange $override 1 end]
         dict set config $directive $arguments
diff --git a/tests/test_helper.tcl b/tests/test_helper.tcl
index e5f2ed77c..86286cdbd 100644
--- a/tests/test_helper.tcl
+++ b/tests/test_helper.tcl
@@ -49,7 +49,13 @@ proc s {args} {
     status [srv $level "client"] [lindex $args 0]
 }
 
+proc cleanup {} {
+    exec rm -rf {*}[glob tests/tmp/redis.conf.*]
+    exec rm -rf {*}[glob tests/tmp/server.*]
+}
+
 proc main {} {
+    cleanup
     execute_tests "unit/auth"
     execute_tests "unit/protocol"
     execute_tests "unit/basic"
@@ -62,15 +68,25 @@ proc main {} {
     execute_tests "unit/other"
     execute_tests "integration/replication"
     execute_tests "integration/aof"
+
+    # run tests with VM enabled
+    set ::global_overrides [list [list vm-enabled yes]]
+    execute_tests "unit/protocol"
+    execute_tests "unit/basic"
+    execute_tests "unit/type/list"
+    execute_tests "unit/type/set"
+    execute_tests "unit/type/zset"
+    execute_tests "unit/type/hash"
+    execute_tests "unit/sort"
+    execute_tests "unit/expire"
+    execute_tests "unit/other"
     
     puts "\n[expr $::passed+$::failed] tests, $::passed passed, $::failed failed"
     if {$::failed > 0} {
         puts "\n*** WARNING!!! $::failed FAILED TESTS ***\n"
     }
-    
-    # clean up tmp
-    exec rm -rf {*}[glob tests/tmp/redis.conf.*]
-    exec rm -rf {*}[glob tests/tmp/server.*]
+
+    cleanup
 }
 
 main