diff --git a/exec/java-exec/src/test/java/org/apache/drill/exec/impersonation/BaseTestImpersonation.java b/exec/java-exec/src/test/java/org/apache/drill/exec/impersonation/BaseTestImpersonation.java
index f1d471d09e6..e60943825df 100644
--- a/exec/java-exec/src/test/java/org/apache/drill/exec/impersonation/BaseTestImpersonation.java
+++ b/exec/java-exec/src/test/java/org/apache/drill/exec/impersonation/BaseTestImpersonation.java
@@ -21,11 +21,13 @@
 import org.apache.drill.common.config.DrillConfig;
 import org.apache.drill.exec.ExecConstants;
 import org.apache.drill.exec.dotdrill.DotDrillType;
+import org.apache.drill.exec.rpc.security.KerberosHelper;
 import org.apache.drill.exec.store.StoragePluginRegistry;
 import org.apache.drill.exec.store.dfs.FileSystemConfig;
 import org.apache.drill.exec.store.dfs.WorkspaceConfig;
 import org.apache.drill.shaded.guava.com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import org.apache.drill.shaded.guava.com.google.common.base.Strings;
+import org.apache.drill.test.BaseDirTestWatcher;
 import org.apache.drill.test.ClientFixture;
 import org.apache.drill.test.ClusterFixture;
 import org.apache.drill.test.ClusterFixtureBuilder;
@@ -45,6 +47,7 @@
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_KEYTAB_FILE_KEY;
 
 public class BaseTestImpersonation extends ClusterTest {
   protected static final String MINI_DFS_STORAGE_PLUGIN_NAME = "mini_dfs_plugin";
@@ -54,6 +57,7 @@ public class BaseTestImpersonation extends ClusterTest {
   protected static Configuration dfsConf;
   protected static FileSystem fs;
   protected static File miniDfsStoragePath;
+  private static KerberosHelper krbHelper;
 
   // Test users and groups
   protected static final String[] org1Users = { "user0_1", "user1_1", "user2_1", "user3_1", "user4_1", "user5_1" };
@@ -100,9 +104,14 @@ protected static void startMiniDfsCluster(String testClass, boolean isImpersonat
     dfsConf.set("hdfs.minidfs.basedir", miniDfsStoragePath.getCanonicalPath());
 
     if (isImpersonationEnabled) {
+      krbHelper = new KerberosHelper(BaseTestImpersonation.class.getSimpleName(), null);
+      krbHelper.setupKdc(BaseDirTestWatcher.createTempDir(dirTestWatcher.getTmpDir()));
+
       // Set the proxyuser settings so that the user who is running the Drillbits/MiniDfs can impersonate other users.
       dfsConf.set(String.format("hadoop.proxyuser.%s.hosts", processUser), "*");
       dfsConf.set(String.format("hadoop.proxyuser.%s.groups", processUser), "*");
+      dfsConf.set("hadoop.security.authentication", "simple");
+      dfsConf.set(DFS_NAMENODE_KEYTAB_FILE_KEY, krbHelper.serverKeytab.toString());
     }
 
     // Start the MiniDfs cluster