diff --git a/lib/options.go b/lib/options.go
index 4f013e50652..e4f3a2d6929 100644
--- a/lib/options.go
+++ b/lib/options.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"crypto/x509"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"encoding/pem"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"net"
 	"reflect"
@@ -519,7 +520,7 @@ func (o Options) Apply(opts Options) Options {
 func (o Options) Validate() []error {
 	// TODO: validate all of the other options... that we should have already been validating...
 	// TODO: maybe integrate an external validation lib: https://github.com/avelino/awesome-go#validation
-	var errors []error
+	var validationErrors []error
 	if o.ExecutionSegmentSequence != nil {
 		var segmentFound bool
 		for _, segment := range *o.ExecutionSegmentSequence {
@@ -529,12 +530,18 @@ func (o Options) Validate() []error {
 			}
 		}
 		if !segmentFound {
-			errors = append(errors,
+			validationErrors = append(validationErrors,
 				fmt.Errorf("provided segment %s can't be found in sequence %s",
 					o.ExecutionSegment, o.ExecutionSegmentSequence))
 		}
 	}
-	return append(errors, o.Scenarios.Validate()...)
+	validationErrors = append(validationErrors, o.Scenarios.Validate()...)
+
+	// Duration
+	if o.SetupTimeout.Valid && o.SetupTimeout.Duration <= 0 {
+		validationErrors = append(validationErrors, errors.New("setupTimeout must be positive"))
+	}
+	return validationErrors
 }
 
 // ForEachSpecified enumerates all struct fields and calls the supplied function with each
diff --git a/lib/options_test.go b/lib/options_test.go
index 586cfc52324..c7132c4e983 100644
--- a/lib/options_test.go
+++ b/lib/options_test.go
@@ -789,3 +789,44 @@ func TestHost(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestValidate(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+	t.Run("setupTimeout", func(t *testing.T) {
+		t.Parallel()
+		testData := []struct {
+			input         string
+			expectFailure bool
+			expectOutput  types.Duration
+		}{
+			{
+				input:         "1s",
+				expectFailure: false,
+				expectOutput:  types.Duration(1 * time.Second),
+			},
+			{
+				input:         "0s",
+				expectFailure: true,
+			},
+			{
+				input:         "-1s",
+				expectFailure: true,
+			},
+		}
+		for _, data := range testData {
+			data := data
+			t.Run(data.input, func(t *testing.T) {
+				t.Parallel()
+				sec, _ := time.ParseDuration(data.input)
+				opts := Options{}.Apply(Options{SetupTimeout: types.NewNullDuration(sec, true)})
+				errorsSlice := opts.Validate()
+				if data.expectFailure {
+					assert.Len(t, errorsSlice, 1)
+				} else {
+					assert.Len(t, errorsSlice, 0)
+					assert.Equal(t, time.Duration(opts.SetupTimeout.Duration), sec)
+				}
+			})
+		}
+	})
+}