diff --git a/tests/config/basic/posixDatastore2.yaml b/tests/config/basic/posixDatastore2.yaml
index c496ec4572..2830339f10 100644
--- a/tests/config/basic/posixDatastore2.yaml
+++ b/tests/config/basic/posixDatastore2.yaml
@@ -23,3 +23,4 @@ datastore:
     StructuredDataPickle: lsst.daf.butler.formatters.pickle.PickleFormatter
     ThingOne: lsst.daf.butler.formatters.pickle.PickleFormatter
     MetricsConversion: lsst.daf.butler.formatters.json.JsonFormatter
+    StructuredDataDataTest: lsst.daf.butler.tests.testFormatters.MetricsExampleDataFormatter
diff --git a/tests/test_cliCmdQueryDatasets.py b/tests/test_cliCmdQueryDatasets.py
index 8ec35ed6e8..3072671e4e 100644
--- a/tests/test_cliCmdQueryDatasets.py
+++ b/tests/test_cliCmdQueryDatasets.py
@@ -157,8 +157,8 @@ def _queryDatasets(
             find_first=find_first,
             show_uri=show_uri,
             limit=limit,
-            repo=repo,
             order_by=order_by,
+            butler=repo,
         )
         return list(query.getTables())
 
@@ -174,9 +174,11 @@ def testChained(self):
             self.repoDir, configFile=os.path.join(TESTDIR, "config/basic/butler-chained.yaml")
         )
 
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, show_uri=True)
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, show_uri=True)
 
-        # Want second datastore root.
+        # Want second datastore root since in-memory is ephemeral and
+        # all the relevant datasets are stored in the second as well as third
+        # datastore.
         roots = testRepo.butler.get_datastore_roots()
         datastore_root = roots[testRepo.butler.get_datastore_names()[1]]
 
@@ -190,7 +192,7 @@ def testShowURI(self):
         """Test for expected output with show_uri=True."""
         testRepo = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
 
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, show_uri=True)
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, show_uri=True)
 
         roots = testRepo.butler.get_datastore_roots()
         datastore_root = list(roots.values())[0]
@@ -201,9 +203,9 @@ def testShowURI(self):
 
     def testNoShowURI(self):
         """Test for expected output without show_uri (default is False)."""
-        _ = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
+        testRepo = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
 
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir)
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler)
 
         expectedTables = (
             AstropyTable(
@@ -223,9 +225,9 @@ def testWhere(self):
         """Test using the where clause to reduce the number of rows returned by
         queryDatasets.
         """
-        _ = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
+        testRepo = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
 
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, where="instrument='DummyCamComp' AND visit=423")
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, where="instrument='DummyCamComp' AND visit=423")
 
         expectedTables = (
             AstropyTable(
@@ -237,7 +239,7 @@ def testWhere(self):
         self.assertAstropyTablesEqual(tables, expectedTables, filterColumns=True)
 
         with self.assertRaises(RuntimeError):
-            self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, collections="*", find_first=True)
+            self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, collections="*", find_first=True)
 
     def testGlobDatasetType(self):
         """Test specifying dataset type."""
@@ -262,7 +264,7 @@ def testGlobDatasetType(self):
         testRepo.addDataset(dataId={"instrument": "DummyCamComp", "visit": 425}, datasetType=datasetType)
 
         # verify the new dataset type increases the number of tables found:
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir)
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler)
 
         expectedTables = (
             AstropyTable(
@@ -285,10 +287,10 @@ def testGlobDatasetType(self):
     def test_limit_order(self):
         """Test limit and ordering."""
         # Create and register an additional DatasetType
-        MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
+        testRepo = MetricTestRepo(self.repoDir, configFile=self.configFile)
 
         with self.assertLogs("lsst.daf.butler.script.queryDatasets", level="WARNING") as cm:
-            tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, limit=-1, order_by=("visit"))
+            tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, limit=-1, order_by=("visit"))
 
         self.assertIn("increase this limit", cm.output[0])
 
@@ -301,7 +303,7 @@ def test_limit_order(self):
         self.assertAstropyTablesEqual(tables, expectedTables, filterColumns=True)
 
         with self.assertLogs("lsst.daf.butler.script.queryDatasets", level="WARNING") as cm:
-            tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, limit=-1, order_by=("-visit"))
+            tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, limit=-1, order_by=("-visit"))
         self.assertIn("increase this limit", cm.output[0])
 
         expectedTables = [
@@ -322,7 +324,7 @@ def testFindFirstAndCollections(self):
         testRepo.addDataset(run="foo", dataId={"instrument": "DummyCamComp", "visit": 424})
 
         # Verify that without find-first, duplicate datasets are returned
-        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=self.repoDir, collections=["foo", "ingest/run"], show_uri=True)
+        tables = self._queryDatasets(repo=testRepo.butler, collections=["foo", "ingest/run"], show_uri=True)
 
         # The test should be running with a single FileDatastore.
         roots = testRepo.butler.get_datastore_roots()
@@ -465,7 +467,7 @@ def testFindFirstAndCollections(self):
         # Verify that with find first the duplicate dataset is eliminated and
         # the more recent dataset is returned.
         tables = self._queryDatasets(
-            repo=self.repoDir, collections=["foo", "ingest/run"], show_uri=True, find_first=True
+            repo=testRepo.butler, collections=["foo", "ingest/run"], show_uri=True, find_first=True
         )
 
         expectedTables = (