diff --git a/cinder/tests/unit/db/test_migrations.py b/cinder/tests/unit/db/test_migrations.py
index 1568a174438..d006d47b291 100644
--- a/cinder/tests/unit/db/test_migrations.py
+++ b/cinder/tests/unit/db/test_migrations.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ from sqlalchemy.engine import reflection
 
 from cinder.db import migration
 import cinder.db.sqlalchemy.migrate_repo
+from cinder.tests.unit import utils as test_utils
 
 
 class MigrationsMixin(test_migrations.WalkVersionsMixin):
@@ -348,6 +349,10 @@ class MigrationsMixin(test_migrations.WalkVersionsMixin):
         self.assertIn('destination_project_id', volume_transfer.c)
         self.assertIn('accepted', volume_transfer.c)
 
+    # NOTE: this test becomes slower with each addition of new DB migration.
+    # 'pymysql' works much slower on slow nodes than 'psycopg2'. And such
+    # timeout mostly required for testing of 'mysql' backend.
+    @test_utils.set_timeout(300)
     def test_walk_versions(self):
         self.walk_versions(False, False)
         self.assert_each_foreign_key_is_part_of_an_index()
@@ -371,6 +376,7 @@ class TestMysqlMigrations(test_fixtures.OpportunisticDBTestMixin,
     FIXTURE = test_fixtures.MySQLOpportunisticFixture
     BOOL_TYPE = sqlalchemy.dialects.mysql.TINYINT
 
+    @test_utils.set_timeout(300)
     def test_mysql_innodb(self):
         """Test that table creation on mysql only builds InnoDB tables."""
         # add this to the global lists to make reset work with it, it's removed
diff --git a/cinder/tests/unit/utils.py b/cinder/tests/unit/utils.py
index 1938a134567..4b849e77c29 100644
--- a/cinder/tests/unit/utils.py
+++ b/cinder/tests/unit/utils.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #
 
 import datetime
+import fixtures
 import socket
 import sys
 import uuid
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_service import loopingcall
 from oslo_utils import timeutils
 import oslo_versionedobjects
+import six
 
 from cinder.common import constants
 from cinder import context
@@ -534,3 +536,23 @@ def create_populated_cluster(ctxt, num_services, num_down_svcs=0, **values):
         for i in range(num_services)
     ]
     return cluster, svcs
+
+
+def set_timeout(timeout):
+    """Timeout decorator for unit test methods.
+
+    Use this decorator for tests that are expected to pass in very specific
+    amount of time, not common for all other tests.
+    It can have either big or small value.
+    """
+
+    def _decorator(f):
+
+        @six.wraps(f)
+        def _wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
+            self.useFixture(fixtures.Timeout(timeout, gentle=True))
+            return f(self, *args, **kwargs)
+
+        return _wrapper
+
+    return _decorator