diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 38262e2f..21adf3c5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ doc/build/
 *.log
 *.sql
 *.sqlite
-logs/
+logs/*
 
 # OS generated files #
 ######################
@@ -65,5 +65,7 @@ tests/plugins
 tests/playbooks
 tests/test.retry
 
-# Vagrant testing artifacts
+# Vagrant artifacts
 .vagrant
+
+
diff --git a/manual-test.rc b/manual-test.rc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f7e77710
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manual-test.rc
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+export VIRTUAL_ENV=$(pwd)
+export ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=False
+export ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH=/tmp/%%h-%%r
+
+# TODO (odyssey4me) These are only here as they are non-standard folder
+# names for Ansible 1.9.x. We are using the standard folder names for
+# Ansible v2.x. We can remove this when we move to Ansible 2.x.
+export ANSIBLE_ACTION_PLUGINS=${HOME}/.ansible/plugins/action
+export ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=${HOME}/.ansible/plugins/callback
+export ANSIBLE_FILTER_PLUGINS=${HOME}/.ansible/plugins/filter
+export ANSIBLE_LOOKUP_PLUGINS=${HOME}/.ansible/plugins/lookup
+
+# This is required as the default is the current path or a path specified
+# in ansible.cfg
+export ANSIBLE_LIBRARY=${HOME}/.ansible/plugins/library
+
+# This is required as the default is '/etc/ansible/roles' or a path
+# specified in ansible.cfg
+export ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH=${HOME}/.ansible/roles:$(pwd)/..
+
+export ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS="-o ControlMaster=no \
+  -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null \
+  -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no \
+  -o ServerAliveInterval=64 \
+  -o ServerAliveCountMax=1024 \
+  -o Compression=no \
+  -o TCPKeepAlive=yes \
+  -o VerifyHostKeyDNS=no \
+  -o ForwardX11=no \
+  -o ForwardAgent=yes"
+
+echo "Run manual functional tests by executing the following:"
+echo "# ./.tox/functional/bin/ansible-playbook -i tests/inventory tests/test.yml -e \"rolename=$(pwd)\""
diff --git a/run_tests.sh b/run_tests.sh
index 0a49aa3e..482a3894 100755
--- a/run_tests.sh
+++ b/run_tests.sh
@@ -24,23 +24,23 @@ if [ ! "$(which pip)" ]; then
 fi
 
 # Install bindep and tox
-pip install bindep tox
+sudo pip install bindep tox
 
 # CentOS 7 requires two additional packages:
 #   redhat-lsb-core - for bindep profile support
 #   epel-release    - required to install python-ndg_httpsclient/python2-pyasn1
 if [ "$(which yum)" ]; then
-    yum -y install redhat-lsb-core epel-release
+    sudo yum -y install redhat-lsb-core epel-release
 fi
 
 # Install OS packages using bindep
 if apt-get -v >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
-    apt-get update
+    sudo apt-get update
     DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
-      apt-get -q --option "Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold" \
+      sudo apt-get -q --option "Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold" \
       --assume-yes install `bindep -b -f bindep.txt test`
 else
-    yum install -y `bindep -b -f bindep.txt test`
+    sudo yum install -y `bindep -b -f bindep.txt test`
 fi
 
 # run through each tox env and execute the test
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index ab11d8ca..d4736eab 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ setenv =
     # This is required as the default is '/etc/ansible/roles' or a path
     # specified in ansible.cfg
     ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH = {homedir}/.ansible/roles:{toxinidir}/..
+    ANSIBLE_TRANSPORT = "ssh"
 commands =
     rm -rf {homedir}/.ansible/plugins
     git clone https://git.openstack.org/openstack/openstack-ansible-plugins \
@@ -121,8 +122,10 @@ commands =
     ansible-galaxy install \
                    --role-file={toxinidir}/tests/ansible-role-requirements.yml \
                    --force
-     rm -rf {toxinidir}/tests/playbooks
-     git clone . {toxinidir}/tests/playbooks
+    rm -rf {homedir}/.ansible/roles/tests
+    bash -c "ln -s {toxinidir} {homedir}/.ansible/roles/tests"
+    rm -rf {toxinidir}/tests/playbooks
+    git clone . {toxinidir}/tests/playbooks
 
 
 [testenv:ansible-syntax]
@@ -146,6 +149,22 @@ commands =
     ansible-lint {toxinidir}
 
 
+[testenv:func_base]
+# NOTE(odyssey4me): this target does not use constraints because
+# it doesn't work in OpenStack-CI yet. Once that's fixed, we can
+# drop the install_command.
+install_command =
+    pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
+
+
+[testenv:func_logs]
+commands =
+    bash -c 'mkdir -p {toxinidir}/logs'
+    bash -c 'rsync --archive --verbose --ignore-errors /var/log/ /openstack/log/ {toxinidir}/logs/ || true'
+    bash -c 'find "{toxinidir}/logs/" -type f | sed "p;s|$|.txt|" | xargs -n2 mv'
+    bash -c 'command gzip --best --recursive "{toxinidir}/logs/"'
+
+
 [testenv:functional]
 # Ignore_errors is set to true so that the logs are collected at the
 #  end of the run. This will not produce a false positive. Any
@@ -156,7 +175,7 @@ ignore_errors = True
 # it doesn't work in OpenStack-CI yet. Once that's fixed, we can
 # drop the install_command.
 install_command =
-    pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
+    {[testenv:func_base]install_command}
 deps =
     {[testenv:ansible]deps}
 setenv =