diff --git a/src/test/setup/venv-apitests.sh b/src/test/setup/venv-apitests.sh
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+++ b/src/test/setup/venv-apitests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Copyright 2017-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+BASEDIR=$(pwd)
+VENVDIR=venv-xosapitest
+
+# create venv if it's not yet there
+if [ ! -d "$BASEDIR/$VENVDIR" ]; then
+    echo "Setting up Virtualenv for XOS API Tests"
+    virtualenv -q $BASEDIR/$VENVDIR --no-site-packages
+    echo "Virtualenv created."
+fi
+
+# activate the virtual env
+if [ ! $VIRTUAL_ENV ]; then
+    source $BASEDIR/$VENVDIR/bin/activate
+    echo "Virtualenv activated."
+fi
+
+# install pip packages
+pip install robotframework robotframework-sshlibrary robotframework-requests robotframework-httplibrary pexpect