diff --git a/debian/test/.gitignore b/debian/test/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..95eda73fcc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/test/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+.vagrant
+*.log
diff --git a/debian/test/provision.sh b/debian/test/provision.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a5c7f59712
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/test/provision.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# provisioning script for vagrant boxes for testing the matrix-synapse debs.
+#
+# Will install the most recent matrix-synapse-py3 deb for this platform from
+# the /debs directory.
+
+set -e
+
+apt-get update
+apt-get install -y lsb-release
+
+deb=`ls /debs/matrix-synapse-py3_*+$(lsb_release -cs)*.deb | sort | tail -n1`
+
+debconf-set-selections <<EOF
+matrix-synapse matrix-synapse/report-stats boolean false
+matrix-synapse matrix-synapse/server-name string localhost:18448
+EOF
+
+dpkg -i "$deb"
+
+sed -i -e '/port: 8...$/{s/8448/18448/; s/8008/18008/}' -e '$aregistration_shared_secret: secret' /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
+systemctl restart matrix-synapse
diff --git a/debian/test/stretch/Vagrantfile b/debian/test/stretch/Vagrantfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d8eff6fe11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/test/stretch/Vagrantfile
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# -*- mode: ruby -*-
+# vi: set ft=ruby :
+
+ver = `cd ../../..; dpkg-parsechangelog -S Version`.strip()
+
+Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
+  config.vm.box = "debian/stretch64"
+
+  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
+  config.vm.synced_folder "../../../../debs", "/debs", type: "nfs"
+
+  config.vm.provision "shell", path: "../provision.sh"
+end
diff --git a/debian/test/xenial/Vagrantfile b/debian/test/xenial/Vagrantfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..189236da17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/test/xenial/Vagrantfile
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# -*- mode: ruby -*-
+# vi: set ft=ruby :
+
+Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
+  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/xenial64"
+
+  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
+  config.vm.synced_folder "../../../../debs", "/debs"
+  config.vm.provision "shell", path: "../provision.sh"
+end