diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.tls b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.tls
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cecab269ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.tls
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Helpers for TLS related config
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2018 Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see .
+#
+
+tls_dir="${TEST_DIR}/tls"
+
+function tls_x509_cleanup()
+{
+ rm -f "${tls_dir}"/*.pem
+ rm -f "${tls_dir}"/*/*.pem
+ rmdir "${tls_dir}"/*
+ rmdir "${tls_dir}"
+}
+
+
+function tls_x509_init()
+{
+ mkdir -p "${tls_dir}"
+
+ # use a fixed key so we don't waste system entropy on
+ # each test run
+ cat > "${tls_dir}/key.pem" < "${tls_dir}/ca.info" <&1 | head -1
+
+ rm -f "${tls_dir}/ca.info"
+}
+
+
+function tls_x509_create_server()
+{
+ caname=$1
+ name=$2
+
+ mkdir -p "${tls_dir}/$name"
+ cat > "${tls_dir}/cert.info" <&1 | head -1
+ ln -s "${tls_dir}/$caname-cert.pem" "${tls_dir}/$name/ca-cert.pem"
+ ln -s "${tls_dir}/key.pem" "${tls_dir}/$name/server-key.pem"
+
+ rm -f "${tls_dir}/cert.info"
+}
+
+
+function tls_x509_create_client()
+{
+ caname=$1
+ name=$2
+
+ mkdir -p "${tls_dir}/$name"
+ cat > "${tls_dir}/cert.info" <&1 | head -1
+ ln -s "${tls_dir}/$caname-cert.pem" "${tls_dir}/$name/ca-cert.pem"
+ ln -s "${tls_dir}/key.pem" "${tls_dir}/$name/client-key.pem"
+
+ rm -f "${tls_dir}/cert.info"
+}