diff --git a/src/test/java/org/gitlab4j/api/TestGitLabSession.java b/src/test/java/org/gitlab4j/api/TestGitLabSession.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..01004991ce459235b0691fbd3798450ed3eb7d38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/gitlab4j/api/TestGitLabSession.java
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+package org.gitlab4j.api;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * In order for these tests to run you must set the following systems properties:
+ * 
+ * TEST_HOST_URL
+ * TEST_USERNAME
+ * TEST_PASSWORD
+ * 
+ * If any of the above are NULL, all tests in this class will be skipped. If running from mvn simply
+ * use a command line similar to:
+ * 
+ * mvn test -DTEST_HOST_URL=https://gitlab.com -DTTEST_USERNAME=your_username -DTEST_PASSWORD=your_strong_password
+ */
+public class TestGitLabSession {
+
+    // The following needs to be set to your test repository
+    private static final String TEST_USERNAME;
+    private static final String TEST_PASSWORD;
+    private static final String TEST_HOST_URL;
+    static {
+        TEST_USERNAME = System.getProperty("TEST_USERNAME");
+        TEST_PASSWORD = System.getProperty("TEST_PASSWORD");
+        TEST_HOST_URL = System.getProperty("TEST_HOST_URL");
+    }
+
+    private static String problems = "";
+
+    public TestGitLabSession() {
+        super();
+    }
+
+    @BeforeClass
+    public static void setup() {
+
+        problems = "";
+
+        if (TEST_USERNAME == null || TEST_USERNAME.trim().length() == 0) {
+            problems += "TEST_USERNAME cannot be empty\n";
+        }
+
+        if (TEST_PASSWORD == null || TEST_PASSWORD.trim().length() == 0) {
+            problems += "TEST_PASSWORD cannot be empty\n";
+        }
+
+        if (TEST_HOST_URL == null || TEST_HOST_URL.trim().length() == 0) {
+            problems += "TEST_HOST_URL cannot be empty\n";
+        }
+
+        if (!problems.isEmpty()) {
+            System.err.print(problems);
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Before
+    public void beforeMethod() {
+        assumeTrue(problems != null && problems.isEmpty());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSession() throws GitLabApiException {
+        GitLabApi gitlabApi = GitLabApi.create(TEST_HOST_URL, TEST_USERNAME, TEST_PASSWORD);
+        assertNotNull(gitlabApi);
+    }
+}