diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/pom.xml b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/pom.xml
index 3bda1d3..52958f8 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/pom.xml
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/pom.xml
@@ -86,10 +86,6 @@
                   <mainClass>org.apache.hyracks.control.nc.service.NCService</mainClass>
                   <name>hyracksncservice</name>
                 </program>
-                <program>
-                  <mainClass>org.apache.hyracks.server.drivers.VirtualClusterDriver</mainClass>
-                  <name>hyracks-virtual-cluster</name>
-                </program>
               </programs>
               <repositoryLayout>flat</repositoryLayout>
               <repositoryName>lib</repositoryName>
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/drivers/VirtualClusterDriver.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/drivers/VirtualClusterDriver.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 41c14a7..0000000
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/drivers/VirtualClusterDriver.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,82 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
- * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
- * distributed with this work for additional information
- * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
- * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
- * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
- * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
- * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
- * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
- * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
- * specific language governing permissions and limitations
- * under the License.
- */
-package org.apache.hyracks.server.drivers;
-
-import org.kohsuke.args4j.CmdLineParser;
-import org.kohsuke.args4j.Option;
-
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.common.controllers.CCConfig;
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.common.controllers.NCConfig;
-import org.apache.hyracks.server.process.HyracksCCProcess;
-import org.apache.hyracks.server.process.HyracksNCProcess;
-
-public class VirtualClusterDriver {
-    private static class Options {
-        @Option(name = "-n", required = false, usage = "Number of node controllers (default: 2)")
-        public int n = 2;
-
-        @Option(name = "-cc-client-net-port", required = false, usage = "CC Port (default: 1098)")
-        public int ccClientNetPort = 1098;
-
-        @Option(name = "-cc-cluster-net-port", required = false, usage = "CC Port (default: 1099)")
-        public int ccClusterNetPort = 1099;
-
-        @Option(name = "-cc-http-port", required = false, usage = "CC Port (default: 16001)")
-        public int ccHttpPort = 16001;
-    }
-
-    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
-        Options options = new Options();
-        CmdLineParser cp = new CmdLineParser(options);
-        try {
-            cp.parseArgument(args);
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            System.err.println(e.getMessage());
-            cp.printUsage(System.err);
-            return;
-        }
-
-        CCConfig ccConfig = new CCConfig();
-        ccConfig.clusterNetIpAddress = "127.0.0.1";
-        ccConfig.clusterNetPort = options.ccClusterNetPort;
-        ccConfig.clientNetIpAddress = "127.0.0.1";
-        ccConfig.clientNetPort = options.ccClientNetPort;
-        ccConfig.httpPort = options.ccHttpPort;
-        HyracksCCProcess ccp = new HyracksCCProcess(ccConfig);
-        ccp.start();
-
-        Thread.sleep(5000);
-
-        HyracksNCProcess ncps[] = new HyracksNCProcess[options.n];
-        for (int i = 0; i < options.n; ++i) {
-            NCConfig ncConfig = new NCConfig();
-            ncConfig.ccHost = "127.0.0.1";
-            ncConfig.ccPort = options.ccClusterNetPort;
-            ncConfig.clusterNetIPAddress = "127.0.0.1";
-            ncConfig.nodeId = "nc" + i;
-            ncConfig.dataIPAddress = "127.0.0.1";
-            ncps[i] = new HyracksNCProcess(ncConfig);
-            ncps[i].start();
-        }
-
-        while (true) {
-            Thread.sleep(10000);
-        }
-    }
-}
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksCCProcess.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksCCProcess.java
index d0d8d63..4a70120 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksCCProcess.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksCCProcess.java
@@ -18,25 +18,28 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hyracks.server.process;
 
+import org.apache.hyracks.control.cc.CCDriver;
+
+import java.io.File;
 import java.util.List;
 
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.cc.CCDriver;
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.common.controllers.CCConfig;
-
 public class HyracksCCProcess extends HyracksServerProcess {
-    private CCConfig config;
 
-    public HyracksCCProcess(CCConfig config) {
-        this.config = config;
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    protected void addCmdLineArgs(List<String> cList) {
-        config.toCommandLine(cList);
+    public HyracksCCProcess(File configFile, File logFile, File appHome, File workingDir) {
+        this.configFile = configFile;
+        this.logFile = logFile;
+        this.appHome = appHome;
+        this.workingDir = workingDir;
     }
 
     @Override
     protected String getMainClassName() {
         return CCDriver.class.getName();
     }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void addJvmArgs(List<String> cList) {
+        // CC needs more than default memory
+        cList.add("-Xmx1024m");
+    }
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksNCProcess.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksNCProcess.java
index c4517e6..8bc1694 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksNCProcess.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksNCProcess.java
@@ -18,25 +18,28 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hyracks.server.process;
 
+import org.apache.hyracks.control.nc.service.NCService;
+
+import java.io.File;
 import java.util.List;
 
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.common.controllers.NCConfig;
-import org.apache.hyracks.control.nc.NCDriver;
-
 public class HyracksNCProcess extends HyracksServerProcess {
-    private NCConfig config;
 
-    public HyracksNCProcess(NCConfig config) {
-        this.config = config;
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    protected void addCmdLineArgs(List<String> cList) {
-        config.toCommandLine(cList);
+    public HyracksNCProcess(File configFile, File logFile, File appHome, File workingDir) {
+        this.configFile = configFile;
+        this.logFile = logFile;
+        this.appHome = appHome;
+        this.workingDir = workingDir;
     }
 
     @Override
     protected String getMainClassName() {
-        return NCDriver.class.getName();
+        return NCService.class.getName();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void addJvmArgs(List<String> cList) {
+        // NCService needs little memory
+        cList.add("-Xmx128m");
     }
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksServerProcess.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksServerProcess.java
index 9dec0ec..13cb445 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksServerProcess.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksServerProcess.java
@@ -29,53 +29,69 @@
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 
-public abstract class HyracksServerProcess {
+abstract class HyracksServerProcess {
     private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(HyracksServerProcess.class.getName());
 
     protected Process process;
+    protected File configFile = null;
+    protected File logFile = null;
+    protected File appHome = null;
+    protected File workingDir = null;
 
     public void start() throws IOException {
         String[] cmd = buildCommand();
         if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) {
             LOGGER.info("Starting command: " + Arrays.toString(cmd));
         }
-        process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd, null, null);
-        dump(process.getInputStream());
-        dump(process.getErrorStream());
+
+        ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(cmd);
+        pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
+        if (logFile != null) {
+            if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) {
+                LOGGER.info("Logging to: " + logFile.getCanonicalPath());
+            }
+            logFile.getParentFile().mkdirs();
+            logFile.delete();
+            pb.redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.appendTo(logFile));
+        } else {
+            if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) {
+                LOGGER.info("Logfile not set, subprocess will output to stdout");
+            }
+        }
+        pb.directory(workingDir);
+        process = pb.start();
     }
 
-    private void dump(InputStream input) {
-        final int streamBufferSize = 1000;
-        final Reader in = new InputStreamReader(input);
-        new Thread(new Runnable() {
-            public void run() {
-                try {
-                    char[] chars = new char[streamBufferSize];
-                    int c;
-                    while ((c = in.read(chars)) != -1) {
-                        if (c > 0) {
-                            System.out.print(String.valueOf(chars, 0, c));
-                        }
-                    }
-                } catch (IOException e) {
-                }
-            }
-        }).start();
+    public void stop() {
+        process.destroy();
+        try {
+            process.waitFor();
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+        }
     }
 
     private String[] buildCommand() {
         List<String> cList = new ArrayList<String>();
         cList.add(getJavaCommand());
-        cList.add("-Dbasedir=" + System.getProperty("basedir"));
-        cList.add("-Djava.rmi.server.hostname=127.0.0.1");
+        addJvmArgs(cList);
+        cList.add("-Dapp.home=" + appHome.getAbsolutePath());
         cList.add("-classpath");
         cList.add(getClasspath());
         cList.add(getMainClassName());
+        if (configFile != null) {
+            cList.add("-config-file");
+            cList.add(configFile.getAbsolutePath());
+        }
         addCmdLineArgs(cList);
         return cList.toArray(new String[cList.size()]);
     }
 
-    protected abstract void addCmdLineArgs(List<String> cList);
+    protected void addJvmArgs(List<String> cList) {
+    }
+
+    protected void addCmdLineArgs(List<String> cList) {
+    }
 
     protected abstract String getMainClassName();
 
@@ -83,7 +99,7 @@
         return System.getProperty("java.class.path");
     }
 
-    protected final String getJavaCommand() {
+    private final String getJavaCommand() {
         return System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java";
     }
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksVirtualCluster.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksVirtualCluster.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f08bb43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/process/HyracksVirtualCluster.java
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hyracks.server.process;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+/**
+ * Starts a local hyracks-based cluster (NC and CC child processes).
+ */
+public class HyracksVirtualCluster {
+    private final File appHome;
+    private final File workingDir;
+    private List<HyracksNCProcess> ncProcs = new ArrayList<>(3);
+    private HyracksCCProcess ccProc = null;
+
+    /**
+     * Construct a Hyracks-based cluster.
+     * @param appHome - path to the installation root of the Hyracks application.
+     *                At least bin/hyracksnc (or the equivalent NC script for
+     *                the application) must exist in this directory.
+     * @param workingDir - directory to use as CWD for all child processes. May
+     *                be null, in which case the CWD of the invoking process is used.
+     */
+    public HyracksVirtualCluster(File appHome, File workingDir) {
+        this.appHome = appHome;
+        this.workingDir = workingDir;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates and starts an NCService.
+     * @param configFile - full path to an ncservice.conf. May be null to accept all defaults.
+     * @throws IOException - if there are errors starting the process.
+     */
+    public void addNC(File configFile, File logFile) throws IOException {
+        HyracksNCProcess proc = new HyracksNCProcess(configFile, logFile, appHome, workingDir);
+        proc.start();
+        ncProcs.add(proc);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Starts the CC, initializing the cluster. Expects that any NCs referenced
+     * in the cluster configuration have already been started with addNC().
+     * @param ccConfigFile - full path to a cluster conf file. May be null to accept all
+     *                     defaults, although this is seldom useful since there are no NCs.
+     * @throws IOException - if there are errors starting the process.
+     */
+    public void start(File ccConfigFile, File logFile) throws IOException {
+        ccProc = new HyracksCCProcess(ccConfigFile, logFile, appHome, workingDir);
+        ccProc.start();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Stops all processes in the cluster.
+     * QQQ Someday this should probably do a graceful stop of NCs rather than
+     * killing the NCService.
+     */
+    public void stop() {
+        ccProc.stop();
+        for (HyracksNCProcess proc : ncProcs) {
+            proc.stop();
+        }
+    }
+}
+
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/test/NCServiceIT.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/test/NCServiceIT.java
index bd99c8c..9a231a0 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/test/NCServiceIT.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/server/test/NCServiceIT.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpStatus;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.GetMethod;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.hyracks.server.process.HyracksVirtualCluster;
 import org.json.JSONArray;
 import org.json.JSONObject;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -38,23 +40,29 @@
 public class NCServiceIT {
 
     private static final String TARGET_DIR = StringUtils
-            .join(new String[]{System.getProperty("basedir"), "target"}, File.separator);
+            .join(new String[] { System.getProperty("basedir"), "target" }, File.separator);
     private static final String LOG_DIR = StringUtils
-            .join(new String[]{TARGET_DIR, "surefire-reports"}, File.separator);
+            .join(new String[] { TARGET_DIR, "failsafe-reports" }, File.separator);
     private static final String RESOURCE_DIR = StringUtils
-            .join(new String[]{TARGET_DIR, "test-classes", "NCServiceIT"}, File.separator);
-    private static final String APP_DIR = StringUtils
-            .join(new String[]{TARGET_DIR, "appassembler", "bin"}, File.separator);
+            .join(new String[] { TARGET_DIR, "test-classes", "NCServiceIT" }, File.separator);
+    private static final String APP_HOME = StringUtils
+            .join(new String[] { TARGET_DIR, "appassembler" }, File.separator);
     private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(NCServiceIT.class.getName());
-    private static List<Process> procs = new ArrayList<>();
+
+    private static HyracksVirtualCluster cluster = null;
 
     @BeforeClass
     public static void setUp() throws Exception {
-        // Start two NC Services - don't read their output as they don't terminate
-        procs.add(invoke("nc-red.log", APP_DIR + File.separator + "hyracksncservice",
-                "-config-file", RESOURCE_DIR + File.separator + "nc-red.conf"));
-        procs.add(invoke("nc-blue.log", APP_DIR + File.separator + "hyracksncservice",
-                "-config-file", RESOURCE_DIR + File.separator + "nc-blue.conf"));
+        cluster = new HyracksVirtualCluster(new File(APP_HOME), null);
+        cluster.addNC(
+                new File(RESOURCE_DIR, "nc-red.conf"),
+                new File(LOG_DIR, "nc-red.log")
+        );
+        cluster.addNC(
+                new File(RESOURCE_DIR, "nc-blue.conf"),
+                new File(LOG_DIR, "nc-blue.log")
+        );
+
         try {
             Thread.sleep(2000);
         }
@@ -62,8 +70,11 @@
         }
 
         // Start CC
-        procs.add(invoke("cc.log", APP_DIR + File.separator + "hyrackscc",
-                "-config-file", RESOURCE_DIR + File.separator + "cc.conf"));
+        cluster.start(
+                new File(RESOURCE_DIR, "cc.conf"),
+                new File(LOG_DIR, "cc.log")
+        );
+
         try {
             Thread.sleep(10000);
         }
@@ -72,11 +83,8 @@
     }
 
     @AfterClass
-    public static void tearDown() throws Exception {
-        for (Process p : procs) {
-            p.destroy();
-            p.waitFor();
-        }
+    public static void tearDown() throws IOException {
+        cluster.stop();
     }
 
     private static String getHttp(String url) throws Exception {
@@ -97,18 +105,6 @@
         }
     }
 
-    private static Process invoke(String logfile, String... args) throws Exception {
-        ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(args);
-        pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
-        File logDir = new File(LOG_DIR);
-        logDir.mkdirs();
-        File log = new File(logDir, logfile);
-        log.delete();
-        pb.redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.appendTo(log));
-        Process p = pb.start();
-        return p;
-    }
-
     @Test
     public void IsNodelistCorrect() throws Exception {
         // Ping the nodelist HTTP API
@@ -138,5 +134,4 @@
             tearDown();
         }
     }
-
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/resources/logging.properties b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/resources/logging.properties
index c888bb1..e9f84796 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/resources/logging.properties
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-server/src/test/resources/logging.properties
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
 # Note that the ConsoleHandler also has a separate level
 # setting to limit messages printed to the console.
 
-.level= WARNING
-# .level= INFO
+# .level= WARNING
+.level= INFO
 # .level= FINE
 # .level = FINEST