diff --git a/cloud-hypervisor/tests/integration.rs b/cloud-hypervisor/tests/integration.rs
index 861044508..34379297f 100644
--- a/cloud-hypervisor/tests/integration.rs
+++ b/cloud-hypervisor/tests/integration.rs
@@ -2359,13 +2359,11 @@ mod common_parallel {
         let mut cloud_init_vfio_base_path = vfio_path.clone();
         cloud_init_vfio_base_path.push("cloudinit.img");
 
-        // We copy our cloudinit into the vfio mount point, for the nested
-        // cloud-hypervisor guest to use.
-        rate_limited_copy(
-            guest.disk_config.disk(DiskType::CloudInit).unwrap(),
-            &cloud_init_vfio_base_path,
-        )
-        .expect("copying of cloud-init disk failed");
+        // Prepare a separate cloud-init for the L2 guest with its own
+        // boot notification port.
+        let (_l2_ci_dir, l2_ci_path) = guest.prepare_l2_cloudinit();
+        rate_limited_copy(l2_ci_path, &cloud_init_vfio_base_path)
+            .expect("copying of L2 cloud-init disk failed");
 
         let mut vfio_disk_path = workload_path.clone();
         vfio_disk_path.push("vfio.img");
@@ -2444,24 +2442,17 @@ mod common_parallel {
 
         let r = std::panic::catch_unwind(|| {
             guest.ssh_command_l1("sudo systemctl start vfio").unwrap();
+            GuestNetworkConfig::wait_vm_boot_from(
+                guest.network.l2_tcp_listener_port,
+                &guest.network.l2_guest_ip2,
+                DEFAULT_TCP_LISTENER_TIMEOUT,
+            )
+            .unwrap();
+
             let auth = PasswordAuth {
                 username: String::from("cloud"),
                 password: String::from("cloud123"),
             };
-            wait_for_ssh(
-                "true",
-                &auth,
-                &guest.network.l2_guest_ip1,
-                Duration::from_secs(120),
-            )
-            .unwrap();
-            wait_for_ssh(
-                "true",
-                &auth,
-                &guest.network.l2_guest_ip2,
-                Duration::from_secs(120),
-            )
-            .unwrap();
 
             // We booted our cloud hypervisor L2 guest with a "VFIOTAG" tag
             // added to its kernel command line.
diff --git a/test_infra/src/lib.rs b/test_infra/src/lib.rs
index 19a76bb15..c58e6a9c8 100644
--- a/test_infra/src/lib.rs
+++ b/test_infra/src/lib.rs
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+#[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct GuestNetworkConfig {
     pub guest_ip0: String,
     pub host_ip0: String,
@@ -207,6 +208,7 @@ pub struct GuestNetworkConfig {
     pub l2_guest_mac2: String,
     pub l2_guest_mac3: String,
     pub tcp_listener_port: u16,
+    pub l2_tcp_listener_port: u16,
     pub notify_ip: String,
 }
 
@@ -230,11 +232,13 @@ pub enum WaitForBootError {
 }
 
 impl GuestNetworkConfig {
-    pub fn wait_vm_boot(&self, custom_timeout: u32) -> Result<(), WaitForBootError> {
+    pub fn wait_vm_boot_from(
+        port: u16,
+        expected_guest_addr: &str,
+        custom_timeout: u32,
+    ) -> Result<(), WaitForBootError> {
         let start = std::time::Instant::now();
-        // The 'port' is unique per 'GUEST' and listening to wild-card ip avoids retrying on 'TcpListener::bind()'
-        let listen_addr = format!("0.0.0.0:{}", self.tcp_listener_port);
-        let expected_guest_addr = self.guest_ip0.as_str();
+        let listen_addr = format!("0.0.0.0:{port}");
         let mut s = String::new();
 
         let mut closure = || -> Result<(), WaitForBootError> {
@@ -314,6 +318,10 @@ impl GuestNetworkConfig {
             Ok(_) => Ok(()),
         }
     }
+
+    pub fn wait_vm_boot(&self, custom_timeout: u32) -> Result<(), WaitForBootError> {
+        Self::wait_vm_boot_from(self.tcp_listener_port, &self.guest_ip0, custom_timeout)
+    }
 }
 
 pub enum DiskType {
@@ -1203,6 +1211,7 @@ impl Guest {
             l2_guest_mac2: format!("de:ad:be:ef:34:{id:02x}"),
             l2_guest_mac3: format!("de:ad:be:ef:56:{id:02x}"),
             tcp_listener_port: DEFAULT_TCP_LISTENER_PORT + id as u16,
+            l2_tcp_listener_port: DEFAULT_TCP_LISTENER_PORT + 1024 + id as u16,
             notify_ip: format!("{class}.{id}.1"),
         };
 
@@ -1463,6 +1472,16 @@ impl Guest {
             .map_err(Error::WaitForBoot)
     }
 
+    pub fn prepare_l2_cloudinit(&self) -> (TempDir, String) {
+        let l2_dir = TempDir::new_with_prefix("/tmp/ch-l2").unwrap();
+        let l2_network = GuestNetworkConfig {
+            tcp_listener_port: self.network.l2_tcp_listener_port,
+            ..self.network.clone()
+        };
+        let path = self.disk_config.prepare_cloudinit(&l2_dir, &l2_network);
+        (l2_dir, path)
+    }
+
     pub fn check_numa_node_cpus(&self, node_id: usize, cpus: &[usize]) -> Result<(), Error> {
         for cpu in cpus.iter() {
             let cmd = format!("[ -d \"/sys/devices/system/node/node{node_id}/cpu{cpu}\" ]");