diff --git a/tests/ci/Makefile b/tests/ci/Makefile
--- a/tests/ci/Makefile
+++ b/tests/ci/Makefile
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@
 META_TAR!=mktemp /tmp/meta.XXXXXX
 META_DIR!=mktemp -d /tmp/meta.XXXXXX
 META_DIROUT!=mktemp -d /tmp/meta.XXXXXX
+ENV_FILE=	${META_DIR}/ci-${OSRELEASE}-${GITREV}-${KERNCONF}.env
 DISC_CAM!=truncate -s 128m /tmp/disk-cam
 EXTRA_DISK_NUM?=5
 DISK_NUMBERS!=jot - 1 ${EXTRA_DISK_NUM}
@@ -201,7 +202,47 @@
 ci-set-full-var: .PHONY
 CITYPE=full
 
-ci-create-meta: .PHONY
+ci-get-env: .PHONY
+	@echo "TARGET=${TARGET}" > ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "KERNCONF=${KERNCONF}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "OSRELEASE=${OSRELEASE}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CIIMAGE=${CIIMAGE}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CIDISK=${CIDISK}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "VMSIZE=${VMSIZE}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "VM_MEM_SIZE=${VM_MEM_SIZE}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "TIMEOUT=${TIMEOUT}s" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CITYPE=${CITYPE}" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "KYUA_TEST_FILTERS='${KYUA_TEST_FILTERS}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "META_MODE='${METAMODE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "USE_QEMU='${USE_QEMU}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "GITREV='${GITREV}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "GITBRANCH='${GITBRANCH}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "GITCOUNT='${GITCOUNT}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "BUILDDATE='${BUILDDATE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CC='${CC}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CFLAGS='${CFLAGS}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CPP='${CPP}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CXX='${CXX}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "CXXFLAGS='${CXXFLAGS}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "COMPILER_FEATURES='${COMPILER_FEATURES}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "COMPILER_FREEBSD_VERSION='${COMPILER_FREEBSD_VERSION}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "COMPILER_TYPE='${COMPILER_TYPE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "COMPILER_VERSION='${COMPILER_VERSION}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "HOST_CC='${HOST_CC}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "HOST_MACHINE='${HOST_MACHINE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "HOST_OS='${HOST_OS}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "HOST_OSMAJOR='${HOST_OSMAJOR}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "HOST_OSTYPE='${HOST_OSTYPE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "LD='${LD}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "LDFLAGS='${LDFLAGS}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "MACHINE='${MACHINE}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "MACHINE_ABI='${MACHINE_ABI}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "MACHINE_ARCH='${MACHINE_ARCH}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "MACHINE_CPU='${MACHINE_CPU}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+	@echo "MACHINE_CPUARCH='${MACHINE_CPUARCH}'" >> ${ENV_FILE}
+
+ci-create-meta: ci-get-env .PHONY
 	truncate -s 512M ${META_TAR}
 	tar rvf ${META_TAR} -C ${META_DIR} .
 
diff --git a/tests/ci/tools/freebsdci b/tests/ci/tools/freebsdci
--- a/tests/ci/tools/freebsdci
+++ b/tests/ci/tools/freebsdci
@@ -57,6 +57,27 @@
 	esac
 }
 
+set_environment()
+{
+	if [ "${istar}" -eq 1 ]; then
+		rm -fr ${metadir}
+		mkdir -p ${metadir}
+		tar xvf ${tardev} -C ${metadir}
+		ci_env_file=$(set -- "${metadir}"/ci-*.env; \
+			[ "$#" -eq 1 ] && printf '%s\n' "$1")
+		if [ -z "${ci_env_file}" ]; then
+			echo "ci: No CI environment file found in ${metadir}"
+		else
+			env >> "${ci_env_file}"
+		fi
+	else
+		echo "ERROR: no device with POSIX tar archive format found."
+		# Don't shutdown because this is not run in unattended mode
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
+}
+
 smoke_tests()
 {
 	echo
@@ -72,29 +93,19 @@
 	echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
 	echo "BOOT sequence COMPLETED"
 	echo "TEST sequence STARTED"
-	if [ "${istar}" -eq 1 ]; then
-		rm -fr ${metadir}
-		mkdir -p ${metadir}
-		tar xvf ${tardev} -C ${metadir}
-		cd /usr/tests
-		set +e
-		kyua \
-			-v parallelism=${parallelism} \
-			test ${freebsdci_test_filters}
-		rc=$?
-		set -e
-		if [ ${rc} -ne 0 ] && [ ${rc} -ne 1 ]; then
-			exit ${rc}
-		fi
-		kyua report --verbose --results-filter passed,skipped,xfail,broken,failed --output test-report.txt
-		kyua report-junit --output=test-report.xml
-		mv test-report.* /${metadir}
-		tar cvf ${tardev} -C ${metadir} .
-	else
-		echo "ERROR: no device with POSIX tar archive format found."
-		# Don't shutdown because this is not run in unattended mode
-		exit 1
+	cd /usr/tests
+	set +e
+	kyua \
+		-v parallelism=${parallelism} \
+		test ${freebsdci_test_filters}
+	rc=$?
+	set -e
+	if [ ${rc} -ne 0 ] && [ ${rc} -ne 1 ]; then
+		exit ${rc}
 	fi
+	kyua report --verbose --results-filter passed,skipped,xfail,broken,failed --output test-report.txt
+	kyua report-junit --output=test-report.xml
+	mv test-report.* /${metadir}
 	echo "TEST sequence COMPLETED"
 	echo "INITIATING system SHUTDOWN"
 	echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
@@ -102,11 +113,13 @@
 
 firstboot_ci_run()
 {
+	set_environment
 	if [ "$freebsdci_type" = "smoke" ]; then
 		smoke_tests
 	elif [ "$freebsdci_type" = "full" ]; then
 		full_tests
 	fi
+	tar cvf ${tardev} -C ${metadir} .
 	auto_shutdown
 }