diff --git a/hadoop-ozone/dist/src/main/compose/testlib.sh b/hadoop-ozone/dist/src/main/compose/testlib.sh
index 9aa7c483ccf..f659c0ed5a7 100755
--- a/hadoop-ozone/dist/src/main/compose/testlib.sh
+++ b/hadoop-ozone/dist/src/main/compose/testlib.sh
@@ -22,11 +22,14 @@ RESULT_DIR=${RESULT_DIR:-"$COMPOSE_DIR/result"}
 RESULT_DIR_INSIDE="/tmp/smoketest/$(basename "$COMPOSE_ENV_NAME")/result"
 SMOKETEST_DIR_INSIDE="${OZONE_DIR:-/opt/hadoop}/smoketest"
 
-#delete previous results
-rm -rf "$RESULT_DIR"
-mkdir -p "$RESULT_DIR"
-#Should be writeable from the docker containers where user is different.
-chmod ogu+w "$RESULT_DIR"
+## @description create results directory, purging any prior data
+create_results_dir() {
+  #delete previous results
+  rm -rf "$RESULT_DIR"
+  mkdir -p "$RESULT_DIR"
+  #Should be writeable from the docker containers where user is different.
+  chmod ogu+w "$RESULT_DIR"
+}
 
 ## @description print the number of datanodes up
 ## @param the docker-compose file
@@ -81,6 +84,8 @@ wait_for_datanodes(){
 start_docker_env(){
   local -i datanode_count=${1:-3}
 
+  create_results_dir
+
   docker-compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" down
   docker-compose -f "$COMPOSE_FILE" up -d --scale datanode="${datanode_count}" \
     && wait_for_datanodes "$COMPOSE_FILE" "${datanode_count}" \