diff --git a/src/tests/ftest/recovery/ddb.yaml b/src/tests/ftest/recovery/ddb.yaml
index 961f8429b93..b795614f4f8 100644
--- a/src/tests/ftest/recovery/ddb.yaml
+++ b/src/tests/ftest/recovery/ddb.yaml
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ server_config:
   engines:
     0:
       targets: 1
-      storage: auto
+      storage:
+        0:
+          class: ram
+          scm_mount: /mnt/daos
 
 # In CI, all tests in ddb.py are ran in a single launch.py execution. In that case, the
 # test_dir (/var/tmp/daos_testing/<test_method>) in the server node will not be created