diff --git a/pretest.js b/pretest.js
index 294a24b..bb2e765 100644
--- a/pretest.js
+++ b/pretest.js
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+// TODO: used for testing support for parallel testing on ci.strongloop.com which
+// provides MYSQL_* env vars instead of TEST_MYSQL_* env vars.
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_USER = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_USER || process.env.MYSQL_USER;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD || process.env.MYSQL_PASSWORD;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_HOST = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_HOST || process.env.MYSQL_HOST;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PORT = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PORT || process.env.MYSQL_PORT;
+
 if (!process.env.TEST_MYSQL_USER) {
   console.log('not seeding DB with example db');
   return;
@@ -23,6 +30,9 @@ if (process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD) {
 console.log('seeding DB with example db...');
 var mysql = cp.spawn('mysql', args, {stdio: stdio});
 sql.pipe(mysql.stdin);
-mysql.on('exit', function() {
+mysql.on('exit', function(code) {
   console.log('done seeding DB');
+  setTimeout(function() {
+    process.exit(code);
+  }, 200);
 });
diff --git a/test/init.js b/test/init.js
index ac1e6e5..8d704f4 100644
--- a/test/init.js
+++ b/test/init.js
@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
 // This file is licensed under the MIT License.
 // License text available at https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
 
+// TODO: used for testing support for parallel testing on ci.strongloop.com which
+// provides MYSQL_* env vars instead of TEST_MYSQL_* env vars.
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_USER = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_USER || process.env.MYSQL_USER;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD || process.env.MYSQL_PASSWORD;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_HOST = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_HOST || process.env.MYSQL_HOST;
+process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PORT = process.env.TEST_MYSQL_PORT || process.env.MYSQL_PORT;
+
 module.exports = require('should');
 
 var DataSource = require('loopback-datasource-juggler').DataSource;