Talked with @nchaulet about #61699 and I think this would be an interesting way to solve it, adding a dockerServers config to the functional test runner that would allow launching any number of servers along side the functional tests.

Provided by this feature:

• pull+run a container every time the tests are run
• route logs into the standard logging infrastructure (including junit reports)
• ensure the container stays up until tests complete
• fail tests if container dies
• bind a single port from the container to the machine
• expose the URL of the service via a service
• mechanism to delay test startup while service initializes
• cleanup of container

Not provided by this feature:

• only using containers optionally, so that we don't add docker as a dependency for the repo
• ensuring that multiple containers are not trying to bind to the same port across parallel executions of the FTR

DOCS