diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/Rakefile b/client/ruby/solrb/Rakefile
index b6ec03a342a..8148667f612 100644
--- a/client/ruby/solrb/Rakefile
+++ b/client/ruby/solrb/Rakefile
@@ -1,3 +1,34 @@
+# 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.
+
+
+# the default task is to run both the unit and functional tests
+# functional tests require that a solr test server is running
+# but this Rakefil should take care of starting and stopping it 
+# for you
+# 
+# if you just want to run unit tests:
+#
+#    rake test_units
+#
+# and if you just want to run functional tests
+#
+#    rake test_functionals
+#
+# if you would like to see solr startup messages on STDERR
+# when starting solr test server during functional tests use:
+# 
+#    rake SOLR_CONSOLE=true
+
 SOLRB_VERSION = '0.0.1'
 
 require 'rubygems'
@@ -6,7 +37,7 @@ require 'rake/testtask'
 require 'rake/rdoctask'
 require 'rake/packagetask'
 require 'rake/gempackagetask'
-require 'test/test_helper.rb'
+require 'test/test_solr_server.rb'
 
 task :default => [:test]
 
@@ -35,19 +66,51 @@ Rake::RDocTask.new('doc') do |rd|
   rd.rdoc_dir = 'doc'
 end
 
-# append to the test task so that we can wrap 
-# Rake::TestTask with a call to start/stop a solr server
-
-task :test do
-  start_solr_server
-end
-
-Rake::TestTask.new('test') do |t|
-  t.pattern = 'test/*_test.rb'
+Rake::TestTask.new(:test_units) do |t|
+  t.pattern = 'test/unit/*_test.rb'
   t.verbose = true
-  t.ruby_opts = ['-r solr', '-r test/unit', '-Itest']
+  t.ruby_opts = ['-r solr', '-r test/unit', '-Itest/unit']
+end
+
+Rake::TestTask.new(:test_functionals) do |t|
+  t.pattern = 'test/functional/*_test.rb'
+  t.verbose = true
+  t.ruby_opts = ['-r solr', '-r test/unit', '-Itest/functional']
 end
 
 task :test do
-  stop_solr_server
+  # unit tests don't require a solr server
+  Rake::Task[:test_units].invoke rescue got_error = true
+
+  # functional tests do
+  solr_server = TestSolrServer.instance
+  solr_server.quiet = false if ENV['SOLR_CONSOLE']
+
+  begin
+    puts
+    puts "starting solr server for functional tests"
+    solr_server.start
+    sleep 10
+    Rake::Task[:test_functionals].invoke 
+  rescue 
+    got_error = true
+  ensure
+    puts "stopping solr server"
+    solr_server.stop
+  end
+
+  raise "test failures" if got_error
 end
+
+# TODO: fix this so it works, it is not happy with connection_test.rb for some reason
+#       borrowed from here: http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/2007/01/05#RcovRakeTask
+namespace :test do
+  desc 'Measures test coverage'
+  task :coverage do
+    rm_f "coverage"
+    rm_f "coverage.data"
+    system("rcov --text-summary -Ilib test/unit/*_test.rb")
+    system("open coverage/index.html") if PLATFORM['darwin']
+  end
+
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/test_helper.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/functional/server_test.rb
similarity index 53%
rename from client/ruby/solrb/test/test_helper.rb
rename to client/ruby/solrb/test/functional/server_test.rb
index f13e0265939..e387d5ae892 100644
--- a/client/ruby/solrb/test/test_helper.rb
+++ b/client/ruby/solrb/test/functional/server_test.rb
@@ -10,26 +10,8 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-def start_solr_server
-  Dir.chdir(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../solr') do 
-    puts "starting solr server"
-
-    # start solr and capture the process ID in a global
-    $SOLR_PID = fork do
-
-      # don't want to see the messages about solr starting up
-#      STDERR.close 
-
-      exec "java -Djetty.port=8888 -Dsolr.solr.home=../test -jar start.jar"
-    end
+class TestServer < Test::Unit::TestCase
+  def test_ok
+    assert_equal true, true
   end
-
-  # wait for the jvm and solr to start
-  sleep 10 
 end
-
-def stop_solr_server
-  puts "stopping solr server"
-  Process.kill('TERM', $SOLR_PID)
-end
-
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/test_solr_server.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/test_solr_server.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0b40b3ee1eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/ruby/solrb/test/test_solr_server.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# 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.
+
+# A singleton class for starting/stopping a Solr server for testing purposes
+# The behavior of TestSolrServer can be modified prior to start() by changing 
+# port, solr_home, and quiet properties.
+ 
+class TestSolrServer
+  require 'singleton'
+  include Singleton
+  attr_accessor :port, :solr_home, :quiet
+ 
+  # configure the singleton with some defaults
+  def initialize
+    @port = 8888
+    @quiet = true
+    root_dir = File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/..')
+    @solr_dir = "#{root_dir}/solr"
+    @solr_home = "#{root_dir}/test" 
+    @pid = nil
+  end
+
+  # start the solr server
+  def start
+    Dir.chdir(@solr_dir) do
+      @pid = fork do
+        STDERR.close if @quiet
+        exec "java -Djetty.port=#{@port} -Dsolr.solr.home=#{@solr_home} " + 
+          "-jar start.jar"
+      end
+    end
+  end
+ 
+  # stop a running solr server
+  def stop
+    Process.kill('TERM', @pid)
+    Process.wait
+  end
+ end
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/connection_test.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/connection_test.rb
similarity index 100%
rename from client/ruby/solrb/test/connection_test.rb
rename to client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/connection_test.rb
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/request_test.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/request_test.rb
similarity index 100%
rename from client/ruby/solrb/test/request_test.rb
rename to client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/request_test.rb
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/solr_mock_base.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/solr_mock_base.rb
similarity index 100%
rename from client/ruby/solrb/test/solr_mock_base.rb
rename to client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/solr_mock_base.rb