diff --git a/google-cloud-storage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/storage/it/runner/registry/TestBench.java b/google-cloud-storage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/storage/it/runner/registry/TestBench.java
index 7734794a9f..4d93407620 100644
--- a/google-cloud-storage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/storage/it/runner/registry/TestBench.java
+++ b/google-cloud-storage/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/storage/it/runner/registry/TestBench.java
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ public final class TestBench implements ManagedLifecycle {
   private Path outPath;
   private Path errPath;
 
+  private boolean runningOutsideAlready;
+
   private TestBench(
       boolean ignorePullError,
       String baseUri,
@@ -199,6 +201,14 @@ public Object get() {
 
   @Override
   public void start() {
+    try {
+      listRetryTests();
+      LOGGER.info("Using testbench running outside test suite.");
+      runningOutsideAlready = true;
+      return;
+    } catch (IOException ignore) {
+      // expected when the server isn't running already
+    }
     try {
       tempDirectory = Files.createTempDirectory(containerName);
       outPath = tempDirectory.resolve("stdout");
@@ -308,6 +318,10 @@ public boolean shouldRetry(
 
   @Override
   public void stop() {
+    if (runningOutsideAlready) {
+      // if the server was running outside the tests already simply return
+      return;
+    }
     try {
       process.destroy();
       process.waitFor(2, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
diff --git a/google-cloud-storage/src/test/resources/logback.xml b/google-cloud-storage/src/test/resources/logback.xml
index 3dbad20390..779e3112d3 100644
--- a/google-cloud-storage/src/test/resources/logback.xml
+++ b/google-cloud-storage/src/test/resources/logback.xml
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
   <logger name="com.google.cloud.storage" level="info"/>
   <logger name="com.google.cloud.storage.it" level="warn"/>
   <logger name="com.google.cloud.storage.it.runner.registry.Zone" level="info"/>
+  <logger name="com.google.cloud.storage.it.runner.registry.TestBench" level="info"/>
 
   <root level="info">
     <appender-ref ref="STDOUT"/>