diff --git a/bin/run_tests b/bin/run_tests
index 78c1493fd..ddee02996 100755
--- a/bin/run_tests
+++ b/bin/run_tests
@@ -4,6 +4,29 @@ bin=`cd "$bin">/dev/null; pwd`
 source conf/drillTestConfig.properties
 cd ${bin}/../
 
+default_debug_string="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=50000,server=y,suspend=y"
+
+ARGS=()
+while [[ $# > 0 ]]
+do
+  arg="$1"
+  case "$arg" in
+  --jvm)
+    shift
+    DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS="$DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS $1"
+    shift
+    ;;
+  --debug)
+    DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS="$DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS $default_debug_string"
+    shift
+    ;;
+  *)
+    ARGS+=("$1")
+    shift
+    ;;
+  esac
+done
+
 # when testing a JDBC driver other than the default apache JDBC driver, uncomment the following
 # and set ${JDBC_DRIVER_CP} inside conf/drillTestConfig.properties
 # java -cp conf/:${JDBC_DRIVER_CP}:framework/target/framework-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-shaded.jar:${HADOOP_INSTALL_LOC}/lib/* org.apache.drill.test.framework.TestDriver $*
@@ -11,7 +34,7 @@ cd ${bin}/../
 # use the following line when testing apache drill JDBC driver
 if [[ $HADOOP_VERSION == *"mapr"* ]]
 then
-  java -Xss40m -cp conf/:${DRILL_HOME}/jars/jdbc-driver/drill-jdbc-all-${DRILL_VERSION}.jar:framework/target/framework-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-shaded.jar -Dfs.mapr.bailout.on.library.mismatch=false -Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp/drill/tests -Djava.security.auth.login.config=/opt/mapr/conf/mapr.login.conf -Dzookeeper.sasl.client=false org.apache.drill.test.framework.TestDriver $*
+  java $DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS -Xss40m -cp conf/:${DRILL_HOME}/jars/jdbc-driver/drill-jdbc-all-${DRILL_VERSION}.jar:framework/target/framework-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-shaded.jar -Dfs.mapr.bailout.on.library.mismatch=false -Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp/drill/tests -Djava.security.auth.login.config=/opt/mapr/conf/mapr.login.conf -Dzookeeper.sasl.client=false org.apache.drill.test.framework.TestDriver "${ARGS[@]}"
 else
-  java -Xss40m -cp conf/:${DRILL_HOME}/jars/jdbc-driver/drill-jdbc-all-${DRILL_VERSION}.jar:framework/target/framework-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-shaded.jar org.apache.drill.test.framework.TestDriver $*
+  java $DRILL_TEST_FRAMEWORK_JAVA_OPTS -Xss40m -cp conf/:${DRILL_HOME}/jars/jdbc-driver/drill-jdbc-all-${DRILL_VERSION}.jar:framework/target/framework-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-shaded.jar org.apache.drill.test.framework.TestDriver "${ARGS[@]}"
 fi