diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
index 7c7afc824d7a6d0ad3c75efddf66293882cc8bdc..92155096202b32fba5655d4653a0234ad5eb8769 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
 object TestHive
   extends TestHiveContext(
     new SparkContext(
-      "local[2]",
+      System.getProperty("spark.sql.test.master", "local[2]"),
       "TestSQLContext",
       new SparkConf()
         .set("spark.sql.test", "")