diff --git a/devstack-vm-gate.sh b/devstack-vm-gate.sh
index f1442b2d..006e1687 100755
--- a/devstack-vm-gate.sh
+++ b/devstack-vm-gate.sh
@@ -153,7 +153,10 @@ EOF
         # not cleaning up correctly, and this is a temp measure
         # to prevent it from blocking unrelated changes
         echo "VOLUME_BACKING_FILE_SIZE=10G" >> localrc
-
+        # The volume-upload-image test requires a volume to be
+        # uploaded in glance which in turns is configured for use
+        # swift as backend
+        echo "SWIFT_LOOPBACK_DISK_SIZE=2000000" >> localrc
         # in order to ensure glance http tests don't time out, we
         # specify the TEMPEST_HTTP_IMAGE address to be horrizon's
         # front page. Kind of hacky, but it works.