Indeed, by default surefire start a new jvm for the tests. So you have to add your remote debug configuration in the surefire configuration plugin like that :
<plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.3</version> <configuration> <argLine>-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=4000,server=y,suspend=y </argLine> </configuration> </plugin> HTH, Rémy