diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index 4c372703337..cb20021cfd7 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -1842,7 +1842,7 @@ steps:
       XDEBUG_MODE: coverage
   commands:
     - phpenmod xdebug
-    - PHPUNIT_EXE=build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit TEST_SELECTION=NODB ./autotest.sh sqlite
+    - TEST_SELECTION=NODB ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
     - bash codecov.sh -Z -C $DRONE_COMMIT -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml
 
@@ -1874,7 +1874,7 @@ steps:
       XDEBUG_MODE: coverage
   commands:
     - phpenmod xdebug
-    - PHPUNIT_EXE=build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit TEST_SELECTION=QUICKDB ./autotest.sh sqlite
+    - TEST_SELECTION=QUICKDB ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
     - bash codecov.sh -Z -C $DRONE_COMMIT -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml
 
@@ -1916,7 +1916,7 @@ steps:
   commands:
     - phpenmod xdebug
     - ./tests/drone-wait-objectstore.sh
-    - PHPUNIT_EXE=build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit TEST_SELECTION=PRIMARY-s3 ./autotest.sh sqlite
+    - TEST_SELECTION=PRIMARY-s3 ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
     - bash codecov.sh -C $DRONE_COMMIT -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml
 
@@ -1946,7 +1946,7 @@ steps:
   commands:
     - phpenmod xdebug
     - ./tests/drone-wait-objectstore.sh
-    - PHPUNIT_EXE=build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit TEST_SELECTION=PRIMARY-azure ./autotest.sh sqlite
+    - TEST_SELECTION=PRIMARY-azure ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
     - bash codecov.sh -C $DRONE_COMMIT -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml
 
@@ -1978,7 +1978,7 @@ steps:
   commands:
     - phpenmod xdebug
     - service memcached restart
-    - PHPUNIT_EXE=build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit ./autotest.sh sqlite tests/lib/Memcache/MemcachedTest.php
+    - ./autotest.sh sqlite tests/lib/Memcache/MemcachedTest.php
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
     - sh -c "if [ '$DRONE_BUILD_EVENT' = 'pull_request' ]; then bash codecov.sh -B $DRONE_BRANCH -C $DRONE_COMMIT -P $DRONE_PULL_REQUEST -t 117641e2-a9e8-4b7b-984b-ae872d9b05f5 -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml; fi"
     - sh -c "if [ '$DRONE_BUILD_EVENT' != 'pull_request' ]; then bash codecov.sh -B $DRONE_BRANCH -C $DRONE_COMMIT -t 117641e2-a9e8-4b7b-984b-ae872d9b05f5 -f tests/autotest-clover-sqlite.xml; fi"
diff --git a/autotest.sh b/autotest.sh
index f748cbbed12..84ffa0a1c78 100755
--- a/autotest.sh
+++ b/autotest.sh
@@ -30,8 +30,13 @@ if [ -z "$PHP_EXE" ]; then
 fi
 PHP=$(which "$PHP_EXE")
 if [ -z "$PHPUNIT_EXE" ]; then
-    PHPUNIT_EXE=phpunit
+    if [ -f "build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit" ]; then
+        PHPUNIT_EXE="./build/integration/vendor/bin/phpunit"
+    else
+        PHPUNIT_EXE=phpunit
+    fi
 fi
+
 PHPUNIT=$(which "$PHPUNIT_EXE")
 
 set -e
@@ -56,7 +61,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 if ! [ -x "$PHPUNIT" ]; then
-	echo "phpunit executable not found, please install phpunit version >= 6.5" >&2
+	echo "phpunit executable not found, please install phpunit version >= 9.0" >&2
 	exit 3
 fi