diff --git a/.github/workflows/.vm.yml b/.github/workflows/.vm.yml
index b549ab5689..af93db9ef8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/.vm.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/.vm.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ on:
       template:
         required: true
         type: string
+      integration_dir:
+        description: If set, only run integration tests from these directories (space-separated)
+        required: false
+        type: string
+        default: ""
 
 env:
   GO_VERSION: "1.25.7"
@@ -137,6 +142,7 @@ jobs:
           # TODO: enable GHA cache?
           LIMA_WORKDIR=/tmp/docker lima \
             TEST_SKIP_INTEGRATION_CLI=1 \
+            TEST_INTEGRATION_DIR="${{ inputs.integration_dir }}" \
             TEST_INTEGRATION_USE_GRAPHDRIVER=1 \
             DOCKER_ROOTLESS=${DOCKER_ROOTLESS} \
             DOCKER_GRAPHDRIVER=${DOCKER_GRAPHDRIVER} \
diff --git a/.github/workflows/vm.yml b/.github/workflows/vm.yml
index e92ff7a312..5be0f22881 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/vm.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/vm.yml
@@ -33,14 +33,20 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        template:
+        include:
           # EL 8 is used for running the tests with cgroup v1.
           # Do not upgrade this to EL 9 until formally deprecating the cgroup v1 support.
           #
+          # To minimize CI time the whole test suite takes, only run
+          # integration packages that currently contain cgroup-v1/v2 specific
+          # coverage (cgroup namespaces, cgroup driver/systemd, and resource
+          # update verification via /sys/fs/cgroup paths).
+          #
           # FIXME: use almalinux-8, then probably no need to keep oraclelinux-8 here.
           # On almalinux-8, port forwarding tests are failing:
           # https://github.com/moby/moby/pull/49819#issuecomment-2815676000
-          - template:oraclelinux-8  # Oracle's kernel 5.15
-          # - template:almalinux-8  # kernel 4.18
+          - template: template:oraclelinux-8  # Oracle's kernel 5.15
+            integration_dir: ./integration/container ./integration/build ./integration/system
     with:
       template: ${{ matrix.template }}
+      integration_dir: ${{ matrix.integration_dir }}