diff --git a/buildserver/Vagrantfile b/buildserver/Vagrantfile
index 16bc2305..90d459b7 100644
--- a/buildserver/Vagrantfile
+++ b/buildserver/Vagrantfile
@@ -86,5 +86,7 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
   config.vm.provision "shell", path: "provision-android-ndk",
     args: ["/opt/android-sdk/ndk", "r21e", "r22b"]
   config.vm.provision "shell", path: "provision-gradle"
+  config.vm.provision "shell", path: "provision-buildserverid",
+    args: [`git rev-parse HEAD`]
 
 end
diff --git a/buildserver/provision-buildserverid b/buildserver/provision-buildserverid
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f5010c39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/buildserver/provision-buildserverid
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+
+test -n "$1"
+
+echo "Writing buildserver ID ...ID is $1"
+set -x
+echo "$1" > /home/vagrant/buildserverid
+# sync data before we halt() the machine, we had an empty buildserverid otherwise
+sync
diff --git a/makebuildserver b/makebuildserver
index daafd4d4..24fe201a 100755
--- a/makebuildserver
+++ b/makebuildserver
@@ -584,15 +584,6 @@ def main():
         run_via_vagrant_ssh(v, ['rm', '-f', '~/.gradle/caches/modules-2/modules-2.lock'])
         run_via_vagrant_ssh(v, ['rm', '-fr', '~/.gradle/caches/*/plugin-resolution/'])
 
-    p = subprocess.Popen(['git', 'rev-parse', 'HEAD'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
-                         universal_newlines=True)
-    buildserverid = p.communicate()[0].strip()
-    logging.info("Writing buildserver ID ...ID is %s", buildserverid)
-    # sync data before we halt() the machine, we had an empty buildserverid otherwise
-    write_bsid_cmd = 'sh -c "echo \'{}\' >/home/vagrant/buildserverid; sync"'.format(buildserverid)
-    run_via_vagrant_ssh(v, write_bsid_cmd)
-    logging.debug("+ {}".format(write_bsid_cmd))
-
     logging.info("Stopping build server VM")
     v.halt()