diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 99d3852a292..031aa969d57 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -651,6 +651,8 @@
                             <excludes>
                                 <!-- unit tests for yaml suite parser & rest spec parser need to be excluded -->
                                 <exclude>org/elasticsearch/test/rest/test/**/*</exclude>
+                                <!-- unit tests for test framework classes-->
+                                <exclude>org/elasticsearch/test/test/**/*</exclude>
                             </excludes>
                             <!-- Resources are large and not really helpful as "test sources". -->
                             <excludeResources>true</excludeResources>
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6db77a0d4ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch 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.elasticsearch.test.test;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.IOUtils;
+import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterName;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ElasticsearchTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.InternalTestCluster;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.SettingsSource;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Random;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasEntry;
+
+/**
+ * Basic test that ensure that the internal cluster reproduces the same
+ * configuration given the same seed / input.
+ */
+public class InternalTestClusterTests extends ElasticsearchTestCase {
+
+    public void testInitializiationIsConsistent() {
+        long clusterSeed = randomLong();
+        int minNumDataNodes = randomIntBetween(0, 9);
+        int maxNumDataNodes = randomIntBetween(minNumDataNodes, 10);
+        String clusterName = randomRealisticUnicodeOfCodepointLengthBetween(1, 10);
+        SettingsSource settingsSource = SettingsSource.EMPTY;
+        int numClientNodes = randomIntBetween(0, 10);
+        boolean enableRandomBenchNodes = randomBoolean();
+        int jvmOrdinal = randomIntBetween(0, 10);
+        String nodePrefix = randomRealisticUnicodeOfCodepointLengthBetween(1, 10);
+
+        InternalTestCluster cluster0 = new InternalTestCluster(clusterSeed, minNumDataNodes, maxNumDataNodes, clusterName, settingsSource, numClientNodes, enableRandomBenchNodes, jvmOrdinal, nodePrefix);
+        InternalTestCluster cluster1 = new InternalTestCluster(clusterSeed, minNumDataNodes, maxNumDataNodes, clusterName, settingsSource, numClientNodes, enableRandomBenchNodes, jvmOrdinal, nodePrefix);
+        assertClusters(cluster0, cluster1, true);
+
+    }
+
+    public static void assertClusters(InternalTestCluster cluster0, InternalTestCluster cluster1, boolean assertClusterName) {
+        Settings defaultSettings0 = cluster0.getDefaultSettings();
+        Settings defaultSettings1 = cluster1.getDefaultSettings();
+        assertSettings(defaultSettings0, defaultSettings1, assertClusterName);
+        assertThat(cluster0.numDataNodes(), equalTo(cluster1.numDataNodes()));
+        assertThat(cluster0.numBenchNodes(), equalTo(cluster1.numBenchNodes()));
+        if (assertClusterName) {
+            assertThat(cluster0.getClusterName(), equalTo(cluster1.getClusterName()));
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static void assertSettings(Settings left, Settings right, boolean compareClusterName) {
+        ImmutableSet<Map.Entry<String, String>> entries0 = left.getAsMap().entrySet();
+        Map<String, String> entries1 = right.getAsMap();
+        assertThat(entries0.size(), equalTo(entries1.size()));
+        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : entries0) {
+            if(entry.getKey().equals(ClusterName.SETTING) && compareClusterName == false) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            assertThat(entries1, hasEntry(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()));
+        }
+    }
+
+    public void testBeforeTest() throws IOException {
+        long clusterSeed = randomLong();
+        int minNumDataNodes = randomIntBetween(0, 3);
+        int maxNumDataNodes = randomIntBetween(minNumDataNodes, 4);
+        String clusterName = this.getClass().getName()  + ":" + this.getTestName();
+        SettingsSource settingsSource = SettingsSource.EMPTY;
+        int numClientNodes = randomIntBetween(0, 2);
+        boolean enableRandomBenchNodes = randomBoolean();
+        int jvmOrdinal = randomIntBetween(0, 10);
+        String nodePrefix = "foobar";
+
+        InternalTestCluster cluster0 = new InternalTestCluster(clusterSeed, minNumDataNodes, maxNumDataNodes, clusterName+"1", settingsSource, numClientNodes, enableRandomBenchNodes, jvmOrdinal, nodePrefix);
+        InternalTestCluster cluster1 = new InternalTestCluster(clusterSeed, minNumDataNodes, maxNumDataNodes, clusterName+"2", settingsSource, numClientNodes, enableRandomBenchNodes, jvmOrdinal, nodePrefix);
+
+        assertClusters(cluster0, cluster1, false);
+        long seed = randomLong();
+        try {
+            {
+                Random random = new Random(seed);
+                cluster0.beforeTest(random, random.nextDouble());
+            }
+            {
+                Random random = new Random(seed);
+                cluster1.beforeTest(random, random.nextDouble());
+            }
+            assertArrayEquals(cluster0.getNodeNames(), cluster1.getNodeNames());
+            Iterator<Client> iterator1 = cluster1.iterator();
+            for (Client client : cluster0) {
+                assertTrue(iterator1.hasNext());
+                Client other = iterator1.next();
+                assertSettings(client.settings(), other.settings(), false);
+            }
+            assertArrayEquals(cluster0.getNodeNames(), cluster1.getNodeNames());
+
+        } finally {
+            IOUtils.close(cluster0, cluster1);
+        }
+    }
+}