diff --git a/tests/qtest/numa-test.c b/tests/qtest/numa-test.c
index 35999ea..2f9b7f6 100644
--- a/tests/qtest/numa-test.c
+++ b/tests/qtest/numa-test.c
@@ -25,9 +25,8 @@ static void test_mon_explicit(const void *data)
     g_autofree char *s = NULL;
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
-    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 "
-                   "-numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0-3 "
-                   "-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=4-7 ");
+    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 -numa node,nodeid=0,memdev=ram,cpus=0-3 "
+                         "-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=4-7");
     qts = qtest_init(cli);
 
     s = qtest_hmp(qts, "info numa");
@@ -37,13 +36,13 @@ static void test_mon_explicit(const void *data)
     qtest_quit(qts);
 }
 
-static void test_mon_default(const void *data)
+static void test_def_cpu_split(const void *data)
 {
     QTestState *qts;
     g_autofree char *s = NULL;
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
-    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 -numa node -numa node");
+    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 -numa node,memdev=ram -numa node");
     qts = qtest_init(cli);
 
     s = qtest_hmp(qts, "info numa");
@@ -60,7 +59,7 @@ static void test_mon_partial(const void *data)
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
     cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 "
-                   "-numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0-1 "
+                   "-numa node,nodeid=0,memdev=ram,cpus=0-1 "
                    "-numa node,nodeid=1,cpus=4-5 ");
     qts = qtest_init(cli);
 
@@ -87,7 +86,8 @@ static void test_query_cpus(const void *data)
     QTestState *qts;
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
-    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 -numa node,cpus=0-3 -numa node,cpus=4-7");
+    cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 8 -numa node,memdev=ram,cpus=0-3 "
+                         "-numa node,cpus=4-7");
     qts = qtest_init(cli);
     cpus = get_cpus(qts, &resp);
     g_assert(cpus);
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ static void pc_numa_cpu(const void *data)
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
     cli = make_cli(data, "-cpu pentium -smp 8,sockets=2,cores=2,threads=2 "
-        "-numa node,nodeid=0 -numa node,nodeid=1 "
+        "-numa node,nodeid=0,memdev=ram -numa node,nodeid=1 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=1,socket-id=0 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,socket-id=1,core-id=0 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,socket-id=1,core-id=1,thread-id=0 "
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ static void spapr_numa_cpu(const void *data)
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
     cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 4,cores=4 "
-        "-numa node,nodeid=0 -numa node,nodeid=1 "
+        "-numa node,nodeid=0,memdev=ram -numa node,nodeid=1 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,core-id=0 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,core-id=1 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,core-id=2 "
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ static void aarch64_numa_cpu(const void *data)
     g_autofree char *cli = NULL;
 
     cli = make_cli(data, "-smp 2 "
-        "-numa node,nodeid=0 -numa node,nodeid=1 "
+        "-numa node,nodeid=0,memdev=ram -numa node,nodeid=1 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=1,thread-id=0 "
         "-numa cpu,node-id=0,thread-id=1");
     qts = qtest_init(cli);
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ static void pc_dynamic_cpu_cfg(const void *data)
 
     /* create 2 numa nodes */
     g_assert(!qmp_rsp_is_err(qtest_qmp(qs, "{ 'execute': 'set-numa-node',"
-        " 'arguments': { 'type': 'node', 'nodeid': 0 } }")));
+        " 'arguments': { 'type': 'node', 'nodeid': 0, 'memdev': 'ram' } }")));
     g_assert(!qmp_rsp_is_err(qtest_qmp(qs, "{ 'execute': 'set-numa-node',"
         " 'arguments': { 'type': 'node', 'nodeid': 1 } }")));
 
@@ -542,13 +542,19 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     g_autoptr(GString) args = g_string_new(NULL);
     const char *arch = qtest_get_arch();
 
+    if (g_str_equal(arch, "ppc64")) {
+        g_string_append(args, " -object memory-backend-ram,id=ram,size=512M");
+    } else {
+        g_string_append(args, " -object memory-backend-ram,id=ram,size=128M");
+    }
+
     if (g_str_equal(arch, "aarch64")) {
         g_string_append(args, " -machine virt");
     }
 
     g_test_init(&argc, &argv, NULL);
 
-    qtest_add_data_func("/numa/mon/default", args, test_mon_default);
+    qtest_add_data_func("/numa/mon/cpus/default", args, test_def_cpu_split);
     qtest_add_data_func("/numa/mon/cpus/explicit", args, test_mon_explicit);
     qtest_add_data_func("/numa/mon/cpus/partial", args, test_mon_partial);
     qtest_add_data_func("/numa/qmp/cpus/query-cpus", args, test_query_cpus);
