diff --git a/src/common/meta/src/wal/kafka.rs b/src/common/meta/src/wal/kafka.rs
index 0a61b6015dfc..6719f2f63849 100644
--- a/src/common/meta/src/wal/kafka.rs
+++ b/src/common/meta/src/wal/kafka.rs
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ pub use crate::wal::kafka::topic_manager::TopicManager;
 
 /// Configurations for kafka wal.
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Serialize, Deserialize)]
+#[serde(default)]
 pub struct KafkaConfig {
     /// The broker endpoints of the Kafka cluster.
     pub broker_endpoints: Vec<String>,
diff --git a/tests/conf/metasrv-test.toml.template b/tests/conf/metasrv-test.toml.template
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ecd69473249a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/conf/metasrv-test.toml.template
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[wal]
+{{ if is_raft_engine }}
+provider = "raft_engine"
+{{ else }}
+provider = "kafka"
+broker_endpoints = {kafka_wal_broker_endpoints | unescaped}
+num_topics = 64
+selector_type = "round_robin"
+topic_name_prefix = "distributed_test_greptimedb_wal_topic"
+{{ endif }}
diff --git a/tests/runner/src/env.rs b/tests/runner/src/env.rs
index 7c3f3c9c853d..3dcb93280752 100644
--- a/tests/runner/src/env.rs
+++ b/tests/runner/src/env.rs
@@ -223,6 +223,8 @@ impl Env {
                     "--enable-region-failover".to_string(),
                     "false".to_string(),
                     "--http-addr=127.0.0.1:5002".to_string(),
+                    "-c".to_string(),
+                    self.generate_config_file(subcommand, db_ctx),
                 ];
                 (args, METASRV_ADDR.to_string())
             }