diff --git a/metricbeat/tests/system/metricbeat.py b/metricbeat/tests/system/metricbeat.py
index ed21ecfe3e2..75ad93b1cda 100644
--- a/metricbeat/tests/system/metricbeat.py
+++ b/metricbeat/tests/system/metricbeat.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
+import os
 import re
 import sys
-import os
+import unittest
 import yaml
 
 sys.path.append(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '../../../libbeat/tests/system')))
@@ -139,3 +140,26 @@ def parameterized_with_supported_versions(base_class):
     variants = supported_versions(versions_path)
     decorator = parameterized_class(['COMPOSE_ENV'], variants)
     decorator(base_class)
+
+
+def tag(tag):
+    """
+    Decorates a test function with a tag following go build tags semantics,
+    if the tag is not included in TEST_TAGS environment variable, the test is
+    skipped.
+    TEST_TAGS can be a comma-separated list of tags, e.g: TEST_TAGS=oracle,mssql.
+    """
+    def decorator(func):
+        def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
+            set_tags = [
+                tag.strip() for tag in os.environ.get("TEST_TAGS", "").split(",")
+                if tag.strip() != ""
+            ]
+            if not tag in set_tags:
+                raise unittest.SkipTest("tag '{}' is not included in TEST_TAGS".format(tag))
+            return func(*args, **kwargs)
+        wrapper.__name__ = func.__name__
+        wrapper.__doc__ = func.__doc__
+        return wrapper
+
+    return decorator