Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -1430,11 +1430,11 @@
 ;;     cpu-load))
 
 ;; get values from cached info from dropping file in logs dir
 ;;  e.g. key is host and dtype is normalized-load
 ;;
-(define (common:get-cached-info key dtype #!key (age 3))
+(define (common:get-cached-info key dtype #!key (age 5))
   (let* ((fullpath (conc *toppath* "/logs/" key "-" dtype ".log")))
     (if (and (file-exists? fullpath)
 	     (file-read-access? fullpath))
 	(handle-exceptions
 	 exn

Index: server.scm
==================================================================
--- server.scm
+++ server.scm
@@ -141,10 +141,11 @@
 	(begin
 	  (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "Starting server on " target-host ", logfile is " logfile)
 	  (setenv "TARGETHOST" target-host)))
       
     (setenv "TARGETHOST_LOGF" logfile)
+    (thread-sleep! (/ (random 1900) 1000)) ;; add about a random (up to 1.1 seconds) initial delay. It seems pretty common that many running tests request a server at the same time
     (common:wait-for-normalized-load load-limit " delaying server start due to load" target-host) ;; do not try starting servers on an already overloaded machine, just wait forever
     (system (conc "nbfake " cmdln))
     (unsetenv "TARGETHOST_LOGF")
     (if (get-environment-variable "TARGETHOST")(unsetenv "TARGETHOST"))
     (thread-join! log-rotate)