diff --git a/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag.go b/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5a78ca41e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag.go
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2021 Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package vms
+
+import "regexp"
+
+type regexValue struct {
+	r *regexp.Regexp
+}
+
+func (r *regexValue) String() string {
+	if r.r == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+
+	return r.r.String()
+}
+
+func (r *regexValue) Set(val string) error {
+	if rex, err := regexp.Compile(val); err != nil {
+		return err
+	} else {
+		r.r = rex
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
+func (r regexValue) Unwrap() *regexp.Regexp { return r.r }
diff --git a/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag_test.go b/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d241ef78e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tstest/integration/vms/regex_flag_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2021 Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package vms
+
+import (
+	"flag"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestRegexFlag(t *testing.T) {
+	var v regexValue
+	fs := flag.NewFlagSet(t.Name(), flag.PanicOnError)
+	fs.Var(&v, "regex", "regex to parse")
+
+	const want = `.*`
+	fs.Parse([]string{"-regex", want})
+	if v.Unwrap().String() != want {
+		t.Fatalf("got wrong regex: %q, wanted: %q", v.Unwrap().String(), want)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/tstest/integration/vms/vms_test.go b/tstest/integration/vms/vms_test.go
index a30a95e4a..25c612879 100644
--- a/tstest/integration/vms/vms_test.go
+++ b/tstest/integration/vms/vms_test.go
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ import (
 const securePassword = "hunter2"
 
 var runVMTests = flag.Bool("run-vm-tests", false, "if set, run expensive (10G+ ram) VM based integration tests")
+var distroRex *regexValue = func() *regexValue {
+	result := &regexValue{r: regexp.MustCompile(`.*`)}
+	flag.Var(result, "distro-regex", "The regex that matches what distros should be run")
+	return result
+}()
 
 type Distro struct {
 	name           string // amazon-linux
@@ -360,6 +365,8 @@ func TestVMIntegrationEndToEnd(t *testing.T) {
 
 	dir := t.TempDir()
 
+	rex := distroRex.Unwrap()
+
 	ln, err := net.Listen("tcp", deriveBindhost(t)+":0")
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("can't make TCP listener: %v", err)
@@ -417,11 +424,20 @@ func TestVMIntegrationEndToEnd(t *testing.T) {
 	loginServer := fmt.Sprintf("http://%s", ln.Addr())
 	t.Logf("loginServer: %s", loginServer)
 
+	var numDistros = 0
+
 	cancels := make(chan func(), len(distros))
 
 	t.Run("mkvm", func(t *testing.T) {
 		for n, distro := range distros {
 			n, distro := n, distro
+			if rex.MatchString(distro.name) {
+				t.Logf("%s matches %s", distro.name, rex)
+				numDistros++
+			} else {
+				continue
+			}
+
 			t.Run(distro.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 				t.Parallel()
 
@@ -450,13 +466,13 @@ func TestVMIntegrationEndToEnd(t *testing.T) {
 		for {
 			<-waiter.C
 			ipMu.Lock()
-			if len(ipMap) == len(distros) {
+			if len(ipMap) == numDistros {
 				ipMu.Unlock()
 				break
 			} else {
 				if n%30 == 0 {
 					t.Logf("ipMap:   %d", len(ipMap))
-					t.Logf("distros: %d", len(distros))
+					t.Logf("distros: %d", numDistros)
 				}
 			}
 			n++