diff --git a/ro_core/core/common_test.go b/ro_core/core/common_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bef64f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ro_core/core/common_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2019-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.
+ */
+package core
+
+import (
+	"github.com/opencord/voltha-lib-go/v2/pkg/log"
+)
+
+const (
+	/*
+	 * This sets the LogLevel of the Voltha logger. It's pinned to FatalLevel here, as we
+	 * generally don't want to see logger output, even when running go test in verbose
+	 * mode. Even "Error" level messages are expected to be output by some unit tests.
+	 *
+	 * If you are developing a unit test, and experiencing problems or wish additional
+	 * debugging from Voltha, then changing this constant to log.DebugLevel may be
+	 * useful.
+	 */
+
+	VOLTHA_LOGLEVEL = log.FatalLevel
+)
+
+// Unit test initialization. This init() function handles all unit tests in
+// the current directory.
+func init() {
+	// Logger must be configured or bad things happen
+	_, err := log.SetDefaultLogger(log.JSON, VOLTHA_LOGLEVEL, log.Fields{"instanceId": 1})
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}