diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index af58f766..ccb5ae2d 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ workflows:
           parallelism: 3
           matrix:
             parameters:
-              ansible-version: ["2.15", "2.16"]
+              ansible-version: ["2.16", "2.17"]
               step-version: ["latest", "0.24.0"]
               node-python-version: ["3.7"]
       - collection-testing/pre-commit-lint:
diff --git a/tests/plugins/test_plugins.py b/tests/plugins/test_plugins.py
index 25dbf1ef..34d561a6 100644
--- a/tests/plugins/test_plugins.py
+++ b/tests/plugins/test_plugins.py
@@ -1,67 +1,18 @@
 # pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
 
-from pathlib import Path
-
-from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
-
-LOCAL_CA_TAG = "local-ca"
-
-INTEGRATION_CONFIG_DIR = Path("tests/integration/")
-INTEGRATION_CONFIG_TEMPLATE_REMOTE = "integration_config_remote.yml.j2"
-INTEGRATION_CONFIG_TEMPLATE_LOCAL = "integration_config_local.yml.j2"
-INTEGRATION_CONFIG_FILE = "integration_config.yml"
-
-
-def render_integration_config(template, dest: Path, **kwargs):
-    env = Environment(loader=FileSystemLoader(INTEGRATION_CONFIG_DIR))
-    template = env.get_template(template)
-    content = template.render(**kwargs)
-    with open(dest, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-        f.write(f"{content}\n")
-
-
-def test_plugins_integration_remote(collection_test_env, test_versions, remote_ca_container, ):
-    render_integration_config(
-        INTEGRATION_CONFIG_TEMPLATE_REMOTE,
-        collection_test_env.cwd / "tests" / "integration" / INTEGRATION_CONFIG_FILE,
-        step_ca_version=test_versions.step_ca_version,
-        step_cli_version=test_versions.step_cli_version,
-        step_remote_ca_url=remote_ca_container.ca_url,
-        step_remote_ca_fingerprint=remote_ca_container.ca_fingerprint,
-        step_remote_ca_provisioner_name=remote_ca_container.ca_provisioner_name,
-        step_remote_ca_provisioner_password=remote_ca_container.ca_provisioner_password
-    )
-
-    collection_test_env.run([
-        "ansible-test", "integration", "--color", "-v",
-        "--controller", "docker:default",
-        "--target", f"docker:default,python={test_versions.node_python_version}",
-        "--docker-network", remote_ca_container.ct_network,
-        "--skip-tags", LOCAL_CA_TAG
-    ])
-
-
-def test_plugins_integration_local(collection_test_env, test_versions, local_ca_image):
-    render_integration_config(
-        INTEGRATION_CONFIG_TEMPLATE_LOCAL,
-        collection_test_env.cwd / "tests" / "integration" / INTEGRATION_CONFIG_FILE,
-        step_ca_version=test_versions.step_ca_version,
-        step_cli_version=test_versions.step_cli_version,
-    )
-
-    collection_test_env.run([
-        "ansible-test", "integration", "--color", "-v",
-        "--controller", "docker:default",
-        "--target", f"docker:{local_ca_image.tags[0]},python={test_versions.node_python_version}",
-        "--tags", LOCAL_CA_TAG
-    ])
-
-
 def test_plugins_sanity(collection_test_env, test_versions):
-    collection_test_env.run([
+    params = [
         "ansible-test",
         "sanity", "--docker", "--color", "-v",
         "--python", test_versions.node_python_version,
-        "--skip-test", "metaclass-boilerplate",
-        "--skip-test", "future-import-boilerplate",
-    ])
+    ]
+
+    if int(test_versions.ansible_version.split(".")[1]) <= 16:
+        # these flags are only valid with ansible-test 2.16 and older, as they refer to python 2.7.
+        # Do not include them with newer versions of ansible-test
+        params.extend([
+            "--skip-test", "metaclass-boilerplate",
+            "--skip-test", "future-import-boilerplate"
+        ])
+
+    collection_test_env.run(params)
diff --git a/tests/sanity/ignore-2.15.txt b/tests/sanity/ignore-2.17.txt
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/sanity/ignore-2.15.txt
rename to tests/sanity/ignore-2.17.txt