diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/Add-scenario-config-opt-target-dir-5a969b64be1dc718.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/Add-scenario-config-opt-target-dir-5a969b64be1dc718.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3adacfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/Add-scenario-config-opt-target-dir-5a969b64be1dc718.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+features:
+  - |
+    Adding a new config options `[scenario]/target_dir` which allows
+    users to specify the location where timestamps files will be
+    written to. The default value is /tmp that, however, cannot be
+    expected to persist across reboots of an instance.
diff --git a/tempest/config.py b/tempest/config.py
index b1f736c..471782b 100644
--- a/tempest/config.py
+++ b/tempest/config.py
@@ -1217,7 +1217,10 @@
                default='icmp',
                choices=('icmp', 'tcp', 'udp'),
                help='The protocol used in security groups tests to check '
-                    'connectivity.')
+                    'connectivity.'),
+    cfg.StrOpt('target_dir',
+               default='/tmp',
+               help='Directory in which to write the timestamp file.'),
 ]
 
 
diff --git a/tempest/scenario/manager.py b/tempest/scenario/manager.py
index 2b2ee99..01c42c8 100644
--- a/tempest/scenario/manager.py
+++ b/tempest/scenario/manager.py
@@ -1238,7 +1238,7 @@
         # Default the directory in which to write the timestamp file to /tmp
         # and only use the mount_path as the target directory if we mounted
         # dev_name to mount_path.
-        target_dir = '/tmp'
+        target_dir = CONF.scenario.target_dir
         if dev_name is not None:
             mount_path = os.path.join(mount_path, dev_name)
             ssh_client.make_fs(dev_name, fs=fs)
@@ -1277,7 +1277,7 @@
         # Default the directory from which to read the timestamp file to /tmp
         # and only use the mount_path as the target directory if we mounted
         # dev_name to mount_path.
-        target_dir = '/tmp'
+        target_dir = CONF.scenario.target_dir
         if dev_name is not None:
             mount_path = os.path.join(mount_path, dev_name)
             ssh_client.mkdir(mount_path)