diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
index d84a18e8b6..77965e480c 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
@@ -2012,8 +2012,8 @@ class DevtoolDeployTargetTests(DevtoolBase):
                 self.logger.debug(deploy_cmd)
                 result = runCmd(deploy_cmd)
                 # Run a test command to see if it was installed properly
-                sshargs = '-o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no'
-                result = runCmd('ssh %s root@%s %s' % (sshargs, qemu.ip, testcommand))
+                status, _ = qemu.run(testcommand)
+                self.assertEqual(status, 0)
                 # Check if it deployed all of the files with the right ownership/perms
                 # First look on the host - need to do this under pseudo to get the correct ownership/perms
                 bb_vars = get_bb_vars(['D', 'FAKEROOTENV', 'FAKEROOTCMD', 'PATH'], testrecipe)
@@ -2032,15 +2032,21 @@ class DevtoolDeployTargetTests(DevtoolBase):
                     for line in filelist1:
                         splitline = line.split()
                         f.write(splitline[-1] + '\n')
-                result = runCmd('cat %s | ssh -q %s root@%s \'xargs ls -l\'' % (tmpfilelist, sshargs, qemu.ip))
-                filelist2 = self._process_ls_output(result.output)
+                remotefilelist = '/tmp/%s' % os.path.basename(tmpfilelist)
+                status, _ = qemu.copy_to(tmpfilelist, remotefilelist)
+                self.assertEqual(status, 0)
+                status, output = qemu.run(
+                    'xargs ls -l < %s; status=$?; rm -f %s; exit $status' % (
+                        remotefilelist, remotefilelist))
+                self.assertEqual(status, 0)
+                filelist2 = self._process_ls_output(output)
                 filelist1.sort(key=lambda item: item.split()[-1])
                 filelist2.sort(key=lambda item: item.split()[-1])
                 self.assertEqual(filelist1, filelist2)
                 # Test undeploy-target
                 result = runCmd('devtool undeploy-target -c %s root@%s' % (testrecipe, qemu.ip))
-                result = runCmd('ssh %s root@%s %s' % (sshargs, qemu.ip, testcommand), ignore_status=True)
-                self.assertNotEqual(result, 0, 'undeploy-target did not remove command as it should have')
+                status, _ = qemu.run(testcommand)
+                self.assertNotEqual(status, 0, 'undeploy-target did not remove command as it should have')
 
 class DevtoolBuildImageTests(DevtoolBase):