diff --git a/asterix-app/pom.xml b/asterix-app/pom.xml
index 48c4ee5..d62d031 100644
--- a/asterix-app/pom.xml
+++ b/asterix-app/pom.xml
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@
 					<!-- doesn't work from m2eclipse, currently <additionalClasspathElements> 
 						<additionalClasspathElement>${basedir}/src/main/resources</additionalClasspathElement> 
 						</additionalClasspathElements> -->
+					<skipTests>true</skipTests>
 					<forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
 					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx${test.heap.size}m 
 						-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-configuration.xml b/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-configuration.xml
index 877ab6e..2a52305 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-configuration.xml
+++ b/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-configuration.xml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<configuration xmlns="configuration">
+<asterixConfiguration xmlns="asterixconf">
   <metadataNode>nc1</metadataNode>
   <store>
      <ncId>nc1</ncId>
@@ -8,4 +8,9 @@
      <ncId>nc2</ncId>
      <storeDirs>nc2data</storeDirs> 
   </store>
-</configuration>
+  <property>
+     <name>log_level</name>
+     <value>SEVERE</value>
+     <description></description>
+  </property>
+</asterixConfiguration>
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-metadata.properties b/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-metadata.properties
deleted file mode 100644
index e9ccc63..0000000
--- a/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-metadata.properties
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-MetadataNode=nc1
-NewUniverse=true
-nc1.stores=/tmp/nc1data/
-nc2.stores=/tmp/nc2data/, /tmp/nc2data1/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataTest.java b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataTest.java
index 56259fa..151502b 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataTest.java
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataTest.java
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
     private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(MetadataTest.class.getName());
     private static final String PATH_ACTUAL = "mdtest/";
     private static final String PATH_BASE = "src/test/resources/metadata/";
-    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "test.properties";
+    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "asterix-configuration.xml";
     private static final String WEB_SERVER_PORT = "19002";
 
     @BeforeClass
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/optimizer/OptimizerTest.java b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/optimizer/OptimizerTest.java
index 8530ba1..b559079 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/optimizer/OptimizerTest.java
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/optimizer/OptimizerTest.java
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
 
     private static final ArrayList<String> ignore = AsterixTestHelper.readFile(FILENAME_IGNORE, PATH_BASE);
     private static final ArrayList<String> only = AsterixTestHelper.readFile(FILENAME_ONLY, PATH_BASE);
-    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "asterix-metadata.properties";
+    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "asterix-configuration.xml";
 
     @BeforeClass
     public static void setUp() throws Exception {
diff --git a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/runtime/ExecutionTest.java b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/runtime/ExecutionTest.java
index 299c43c..33b7ed0 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/runtime/ExecutionTest.java
+++ b/asterix-app/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/test/runtime/ExecutionTest.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
     private static final String PATH_ACTUAL = "rttest/";
     private static final String PATH_BASE = "src/test/resources/runtimets/";
 
-    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "test.properties";
+    private static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "asterix-configuration.xml";
     private static final String[] ASTERIX_DATA_DIRS = new String[] { "nc1data", "nc2data" };
 
     private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(ExecutionTest.class.getName());
@@ -63,11 +63,12 @@
         AsterixHyracksIntegrationUtil.init();
 
         // TODO: Uncomment when hadoop version is upgraded and adapters are
-        // ported. 
+        // ported.
         HDFSCluster.getInstance().setup();
 
-        // Set the node resolver to be the identity resolver that expects node names 
-        // to be node controller ids; a valid assumption in test environment. 
+        // Set the node resolver to be the identity resolver that expects node
+        // names
+        // to be node controller ids; a valid assumption in test environment.
         System.setProperty(FileSystemBasedAdapter.NODE_RESOLVER_FACTORY_PROPERTY,
                 IdentitiyResolverFactory.class.getName());
     }
@@ -231,7 +232,7 @@
 
         List<CompilationUnit> cUnits = tcCtx.getTestCase().getCompilationUnit();
         for (CompilationUnit cUnit : cUnits) {
-            LOGGER.severe("[TEST]: " + tcCtx.getTestCase().getFilePath() + "/" + cUnit.getName());
+            LOGGER.info("[TEST]: " + tcCtx.getTestCase().getFilePath() + "/" + cUnit.getName());
 
             testFileCtxs = tcCtx.getTestFiles(cUnit);
             expectedResultFileCtxs = tcCtx.getExpectedResultFiles(cUnit);