tests: add infra and test for storcon leadership transfer (#8587)

## Problem
https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/pull/8588 implemented the mechanism
for storage controller
leadership transfers. However, there's no tests that exercise the
behaviour.

## Summary of changes
1. Teach `neon_local` how to handle multiple storage controller
instances. Each storage controller
instance gets its own subdirectory (`storage_controller_1, ...`).
`storage_controller start|stop` subcommands
have also been extended to optionally accept an instance id.
2. Add a storage controller proxy test fixture. It's a basic HTTP server
that forwards requests from pageserver
and test env to the currently configured storage controller.
3. Add a test which exercises storage controller leadership transfer.
4. Finally fix a couple bugs that the test surfaced

control_plane/src/background_process.rs

@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ where
     }
 }
 
-fn process_has_stopped(pid: Pid) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
+pub(crate) fn process_has_stopped(pid: Pid) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
     match kill(pid, None) {
         // Process exists, keep waiting
         Ok(_) => Ok(false),

control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs

@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ use control_plane::local_env::{
 };
 use control_plane::pageserver::PageServerNode;
 use control_plane::safekeeper::SafekeeperNode;
-use control_plane::storage_controller::StorageController;
+use control_plane::storage_controller::{
+    NeonStorageControllerStartArgs, NeonStorageControllerStopArgs, StorageController,
+};
 use control_plane::{broker, local_env};
 use pageserver_api::config::{
     DEFAULT_HTTP_LISTEN_PORT as DEFAULT_PAGESERVER_HTTP_PORT,
@@ -1052,6 +1054,36 @@ fn get_start_timeout(args: &ArgMatches) -> &Duration {
     humantime_duration.as_ref()
 }
 
+fn storage_controller_start_args(args: &ArgMatches) -> NeonStorageControllerStartArgs {
+    let maybe_instance_id = args.get_one::<u8>("instance-id");
+
+    let base_port = args.get_one::<u16>("base-port");
+
+    if maybe_instance_id.is_some() && base_port.is_none() {
+        panic!("storage-controller start specificied instance-id but did not provide base-port");
+    }
+
+    let start_timeout = args
+        .get_one::<humantime::Duration>("start-timeout")
+        .expect("invalid value for start-timeout");
+
+    NeonStorageControllerStartArgs {
+        instance_id: maybe_instance_id.copied().unwrap_or(1),
+        base_port: base_port.copied(),
+        start_timeout: *start_timeout,
+    }
+}
+
+fn storage_controller_stop_args(args: &ArgMatches) -> NeonStorageControllerStopArgs {
+    let maybe_instance_id = args.get_one::<u8>("instance-id");
+    let immediate = args.get_one::<String>("stop-mode").map(|s| s.as_str()) == Some("immediate");
+
+    NeonStorageControllerStopArgs {
+        instance_id: maybe_instance_id.copied().unwrap_or(1),
+        immediate,
+    }
+}
+
 async fn handle_pageserver(sub_match: &ArgMatches, env: &local_env::LocalEnv) -> Result<()> {
     match sub_match.subcommand() {
         Some(("start", subcommand_args)) => {
@@ -1113,19 +1145,14 @@ async fn handle_storage_controller(
     let svc = StorageController::from_env(env);
     match sub_match.subcommand() {
         Some(("start", start_match)) => {
-            if let Err(e) = svc.start(get_start_timeout(start_match)).await {
+            if let Err(e) = svc.start(storage_controller_start_args(start_match)).await {
                 eprintln!("start failed: {e}");
                 exit(1);
             }
         }
 
         Some(("stop", stop_match)) => {
-            let immediate = stop_match
-                .get_one::<String>("stop-mode")
-                .map(|s| s.as_str())
-                == Some("immediate");
-
-            if let Err(e) = svc.stop(immediate).await {
+            if let Err(e) = svc.stop(storage_controller_stop_args(stop_match)).await {
                 eprintln!("stop failed: {}", e);
                 exit(1);
             }
@@ -1228,7 +1255,12 @@ async fn handle_start_all(
     // Only start the storage controller if the pageserver is configured to need it
     if env.control_plane_api.is_some() {
         let storage_controller = StorageController::from_env(env);
-        if let Err(e) = storage_controller.start(retry_timeout).await {
+        if let Err(e) = storage_controller
+            .start(NeonStorageControllerStartArgs::with_default_instance_id(
+                (*retry_timeout).into(),
+            ))
+            .await
+        {
             eprintln!("storage_controller start failed: {:#}", e);
             try_stop_all(env, true).await;
             exit(1);
@@ -1358,10 +1390,21 @@ async fn try_stop_all(env: &local_env::LocalEnv, immediate: bool) {
         eprintln!("neon broker stop failed: {e:#}");
     }
 
-    if env.control_plane_api.is_some() {
+    // Stop all storage controller instances. In the most common case there's only one,
+    // but iterate though the base data directory in order to discover the instances.
+    let storcon_instances = env
+        .storage_controller_instances()
+        .await
+        .expect("Must inspect data dir");
+    for (instance_id, _instance_dir_path) in storcon_instances {
         let storage_controller = StorageController::from_env(env);
-        if let Err(e) = storage_controller.stop(immediate).await {
-            eprintln!("storage controller stop failed: {e:#}");
+        let stop_args = NeonStorageControllerStopArgs {
+            instance_id,
+            immediate,
+        };
+
+        if let Err(e) = storage_controller.stop(stop_args).await {
+            eprintln!("Storage controller instance {instance_id} stop failed: {e:#}");
         }
     }
 }
@@ -1501,6 +1544,18 @@ fn cli() -> Command {
         .action(ArgAction::SetTrue)
         .required(false);
 
+    let instance_id = Arg::new("instance-id")
+        .long("instance-id")
+        .help("Identifier used to distinguish storage controller instances (default 1)")
+        .value_parser(value_parser!(u8))
+        .required(false);
+
+    let base_port = Arg::new("base-port")
+        .long("base-port")
+        .help("Base port for the storage controller instance idenfified by instance-id (defaults to pagserver cplane api)")
+        .value_parser(value_parser!(u16))
+        .required(false);
+
     Command::new("Neon CLI")
         .arg_required_else_help(true)
         .version(GIT_VERSION)
@@ -1609,9 +1664,12 @@ fn cli() -> Command {
                 .arg_required_else_help(true)
                 .about("Manage storage_controller")
                 .subcommand(Command::new("start").about("Start storage controller")
-                            .arg(timeout_arg.clone()))
+                            .arg(timeout_arg.clone())
+                            .arg(instance_id.clone())
+                            .arg(base_port))
                 .subcommand(Command::new("stop").about("Stop storage controller")
-                            .arg(stop_mode_arg.clone()))
+                            .arg(stop_mode_arg.clone())
+                            .arg(instance_id))
         )
         .subcommand(
             Command::new("safekeeper")

control_plane/src/local_env.rs

@@ -156,6 +156,11 @@ pub struct NeonStorageControllerConf {
     #[serde(with = "humantime_serde")]
     pub max_warming_up: Duration,
 
+    pub start_as_candidate: bool,
+
+    /// Database url used when running multiple storage controller instances
+    pub database_url: Option<SocketAddr>,
+
     /// Threshold for auto-splitting a tenant into shards
     pub split_threshold: Option<u64>,
 
@@ -174,6 +179,8 @@ impl Default for NeonStorageControllerConf {
         Self {
             max_offline: Self::DEFAULT_MAX_OFFLINE_INTERVAL,
             max_warming_up: Self::DEFAULT_MAX_WARMING_UP_INTERVAL,
+            start_as_candidate: false,
+            database_url: None,
             split_threshold: None,
             max_secondary_lag_bytes: None,
         }
@@ -392,6 +399,36 @@ impl LocalEnv {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Inspect the base data directory and extract the instance id and instance directory path
+    /// for all storage controller instances
+    pub async fn storage_controller_instances(&self) -> std::io::Result<Vec<(u8, PathBuf)>> {
+        let mut instances = Vec::default();
+
+        let dir = std::fs::read_dir(self.base_data_dir.clone())?;
+        for dentry in dir {
+            let dentry = dentry?;
+            let is_dir = dentry.metadata()?.is_dir();
+            let filename = dentry.file_name().into_string().unwrap();
+            let parsed_instance_id = match filename.strip_prefix("storage_controller_") {
+                Some(suffix) => suffix.parse::<u8>().ok(),
+                None => None,
+            };
+
+            let is_instance_dir = is_dir && parsed_instance_id.is_some();
+
+            if !is_instance_dir {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            instances.push((
+                parsed_instance_id.expect("Checked previously"),
+                dentry.path(),
+            ));
+        }
+
+        Ok(instances)
+    }
+
     pub fn register_branch_mapping(
         &mut self,
         branch_name: String,

control_plane/src/storage_controller.rs

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ use crate::{
     local_env::{LocalEnv, NeonStorageControllerConf},
 };
 use camino::{Utf8Path, Utf8PathBuf};
+use hyper::Uri;
+use nix::unistd::Pid;
 use pageserver_api::{
     controller_api::{
         NodeConfigureRequest, NodeDescribeResponse, NodeRegisterRequest, TenantCreateRequest,
@@ -18,7 +20,7 @@ use pageserver_client::mgmt_api::ResponseErrorMessageExt;
 use postgres_backend::AuthType;
 use reqwest::Method;
 use serde::{de::DeserializeOwned, Deserialize, Serialize};
-use std::{fs, str::FromStr, time::Duration};
+use std::{fs, net::SocketAddr, path::PathBuf, str::FromStr, sync::OnceLock};
 use tokio::process::Command;
 use tracing::instrument;
 use url::Url;
@@ -29,12 +31,14 @@ use utils::{
 
 pub struct StorageController {
     env: LocalEnv,
-    listen: String,
     private_key: Option<Vec<u8>>,
     public_key: Option<String>,
-    postgres_port: u16,
     client: reqwest::Client,
     config: NeonStorageControllerConf,
+
+    // The listen addresses is learned when starting the storage controller,
+    // hence the use of OnceLock to init it at the right time.
+    listen: OnceLock<SocketAddr>,
 }
 
 const COMMAND: &str = "storage_controller";
@@ -43,6 +47,36 @@ const STORAGE_CONTROLLER_POSTGRES_VERSION: u32 = 16;
 
 const DB_NAME: &str = "storage_controller";
 
+pub struct NeonStorageControllerStartArgs {
+    pub instance_id: u8,
+    pub base_port: Option<u16>,
+    pub start_timeout: humantime::Duration,
+}
+
+impl NeonStorageControllerStartArgs {
+    pub fn with_default_instance_id(start_timeout: humantime::Duration) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            instance_id: 1,
+            base_port: None,
+            start_timeout,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+pub struct NeonStorageControllerStopArgs {
+    pub instance_id: u8,
+    pub immediate: bool,
+}
+
+impl NeonStorageControllerStopArgs {
+    pub fn with_default_instance_id(immediate: bool) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            instance_id: 1,
+            immediate,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
 pub struct AttachHookRequest {
     pub tenant_shard_id: TenantShardId,
@@ -67,23 +101,6 @@ pub struct InspectResponse {
 
 impl StorageController {
     pub fn from_env(env: &LocalEnv) -> Self {
-        // Makes no sense to construct this if pageservers aren't going to use it: assume
-        // pageservers have control plane API set
-        let listen_url = env.control_plane_api.clone().unwrap();
-
-        let listen = format!(
-            "{}:{}",
-            listen_url.host_str().unwrap(),
-            listen_url.port().unwrap()
-        );
-
-        // Convention: NeonEnv in python tests reserves the next port after the control_plane_api
-        // port, for use by our captive postgres.
-        let postgres_port = listen_url
-            .port()
-            .expect("Control plane API setting should always have a port")
-            + 1;
-
         // Assume all pageservers have symmetric auth configuration: this service
         // expects to use one JWT token to talk to all of them.
         let ps_conf = env
@@ -126,20 +143,28 @@ impl StorageController {
 
         Self {
             env: env.clone(),
-            listen,
             private_key,
             public_key,
-            postgres_port,
             client: reqwest::ClientBuilder::new()
                 .build()
                 .expect("Failed to construct http client"),
             config: env.storage_controller.clone(),
+            listen: OnceLock::default(),
         }
     }
 
-    fn pid_file(&self) -> Utf8PathBuf {
-        Utf8PathBuf::from_path_buf(self.env.base_data_dir.join("storage_controller.pid"))
-            .expect("non-Unicode path")
+    fn storage_controller_instance_dir(&self, instance_id: u8) -> PathBuf {
+        self.env
+            .base_data_dir
+            .join(format!("storage_controller_{}", instance_id))
+    }
+
+    fn pid_file(&self, instance_id: u8) -> Utf8PathBuf {
+        Utf8PathBuf::from_path_buf(
+            self.storage_controller_instance_dir(instance_id)
+                .join("storage_controller.pid"),
+        )
+        .expect("non-Unicode path")
     }
 
     /// PIDFile for the postgres instance used to store storage controller state
@@ -184,9 +209,9 @@ impl StorageController {
     }
 
     /// Readiness check for our postgres process
-    async fn pg_isready(&self, pg_bin_dir: &Utf8Path) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
+    async fn pg_isready(&self, pg_bin_dir: &Utf8Path, postgres_port: u16) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
         let bin_path = pg_bin_dir.join("pg_isready");
-        let args = ["-h", "localhost", "-p", &format!("{}", self.postgres_port)];
+        let args = ["-h", "localhost", "-p", &format!("{}", postgres_port)];
         let exitcode = Command::new(bin_path).args(args).spawn()?.wait().await?;
 
         Ok(exitcode.success())
@@ -199,8 +224,8 @@ impl StorageController {
     /// who just want to run `cargo neon_local` without knowing about diesel.
     ///
     /// Returns the database url
-    pub async fn setup_database(&self) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
-        let database_url = format!("postgresql://localhost:{}/{DB_NAME}", self.postgres_port);
+    pub async fn setup_database(&self, postgres_port: u16) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
+        let database_url = format!("postgresql://localhost:{}/{DB_NAME}", postgres_port);
 
         let pg_bin_dir = self.get_pg_bin_dir().await?;
         let createdb_path = pg_bin_dir.join("createdb");
@@ -209,7 +234,7 @@ impl StorageController {
                 "-h",
                 "localhost",
                 "-p",
-                &format!("{}", self.postgres_port),
+                &format!("{}", postgres_port),
                 DB_NAME,
             ])
             .output()
@@ -230,13 +255,14 @@ impl StorageController {
 
     pub async fn connect_to_database(
         &self,
+        postgres_port: u16,
     ) -> anyhow::Result<(
         tokio_postgres::Client,
         tokio_postgres::Connection<tokio_postgres::Socket, tokio_postgres::tls::NoTlsStream>,
     )> {
         tokio_postgres::Config::new()
             .host("localhost")
-            .port(self.postgres_port)
+            .port(postgres_port)
             // The user is the ambient operating system user name.
             // That is an impurity which we want to fix in => TODO https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/issues/8400
             //
@@ -252,72 +278,115 @@ impl StorageController {
             .map_err(anyhow::Error::new)
     }
 
-    pub async fn start(&self, retry_timeout: &Duration) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-        // Start a vanilla Postgres process used by the storage controller for persistence.
-        let pg_data_path = Utf8PathBuf::from_path_buf(self.env.base_data_dir.clone())
-            .unwrap()
-            .join("storage_controller_db");
-        let pg_bin_dir = self.get_pg_bin_dir().await?;
-        let pg_lib_dir = self.get_pg_lib_dir().await?;
-        let pg_log_path = pg_data_path.join("postgres.log");
+    pub async fn start(&self, start_args: NeonStorageControllerStartArgs) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        let instance_dir = self.storage_controller_instance_dir(start_args.instance_id);
+        if let Err(err) = tokio::fs::create_dir(&instance_dir).await {
+            if err.kind() != std::io::ErrorKind::AlreadyExists {
+                panic!("Failed to create instance dir {instance_dir:?}");
+            }
+        }
 
-        if !tokio::fs::try_exists(&pg_data_path).await? {
-            // Initialize empty database
-            let initdb_path = pg_bin_dir.join("initdb");
-            let mut child = Command::new(&initdb_path)
-                .envs(vec![
-                    ("LD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
-                    ("DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
-                ])
-                .args(["-D", pg_data_path.as_ref()])
-                .spawn()
-                .expect("Failed to spawn initdb");
-            let status = child.wait().await?;
-            if !status.success() {
-                anyhow::bail!("initdb failed with status {status}");
+        let (listen, postgres_port) = {
+            if let Some(base_port) = start_args.base_port {
+                (
+                    format!("127.0.0.1:{base_port}"),
+                    self.config
+                        .database_url
+                        .expect("--base-port requires NeonStorageControllerConf::database_url")
+                        .port(),
+                )
+            } else {
+                let listen_url = self.env.control_plane_api.clone().unwrap();
+
+                let listen = format!(
+                    "{}:{}",
+                    listen_url.host_str().unwrap(),
+                    listen_url.port().unwrap()
+                );
+
+                (listen, listen_url.port().unwrap() + 1)
             }
         };
 
-        // Write a minimal config file:
-        // - Specify the port, since this is chosen dynamically
-        // - Switch off fsync, since we're running on lightweight test environments and when e.g. scale testing
-        //   the storage controller we don't want a slow local disk to interfere with that.
-        //
-        // NB: it's important that we rewrite this file on each start command so we propagate changes
-        // from `LocalEnv`'s config file (`.neon/config`).
-        tokio::fs::write(
-            &pg_data_path.join("postgresql.conf"),
-            format!("port = {}\nfsync=off\n", self.postgres_port),
-        )
-        .await?;
+        let socket_addr = listen
+            .parse()
+            .expect("listen address is a valid socket address");
+        self.listen
+            .set(socket_addr)
+            .expect("StorageController::listen is only set here");
 
-        println!("Starting storage controller database...");
-        let db_start_args = [
-            "-w",
-            "-D",
-            pg_data_path.as_ref(),
-            "-l",
-            pg_log_path.as_ref(),
-            "start",
-        ];
+        // Do we remove the pid file on stop?
+        let pg_started = self.is_postgres_running().await?;
+        let pg_lib_dir = self.get_pg_lib_dir().await?;
 
-        background_process::start_process(
-            "storage_controller_db",
-            &self.env.base_data_dir,
-            pg_bin_dir.join("pg_ctl").as_std_path(),
-            db_start_args,
-            vec![
-                ("LD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
-                ("DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
-            ],
-            background_process::InitialPidFile::Create(self.postgres_pid_file()),
-            retry_timeout,
-            || self.pg_isready(&pg_bin_dir),
-        )
-        .await?;
+        if !pg_started {
+            // Start a vanilla Postgres process used by the storage controller for persistence.
+            let pg_data_path = Utf8PathBuf::from_path_buf(self.env.base_data_dir.clone())
+                .unwrap()
+                .join("storage_controller_db");
+            let pg_bin_dir = self.get_pg_bin_dir().await?;
+            let pg_log_path = pg_data_path.join("postgres.log");
 
-        // Run migrations on every startup, in case something changed.
-        let database_url = self.setup_database().await?;
+            if !tokio::fs::try_exists(&pg_data_path).await? {
+                // Initialize empty database
+                let initdb_path = pg_bin_dir.join("initdb");
+                let mut child = Command::new(&initdb_path)
+                    .envs(vec![
+                        ("LD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
+                        ("DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
+                    ])
+                    .args(["-D", pg_data_path.as_ref()])
+                    .spawn()
+                    .expect("Failed to spawn initdb");
+                let status = child.wait().await?;
+                if !status.success() {
+                    anyhow::bail!("initdb failed with status {status}");
+                }
+            };
+
+            // Write a minimal config file:
+            // - Specify the port, since this is chosen dynamically
+            // - Switch off fsync, since we're running on lightweight test environments and when e.g. scale testing
+            //   the storage controller we don't want a slow local disk to interfere with that.
+            //
+            // NB: it's important that we rewrite this file on each start command so we propagate changes
+            // from `LocalEnv`'s config file (`.neon/config`).
+            tokio::fs::write(
+                &pg_data_path.join("postgresql.conf"),
+                format!("port = {}\nfsync=off\n", postgres_port),
+            )
+            .await?;
+
+            println!("Starting storage controller database...");
+            let db_start_args = [
+                "-w",
+                "-D",
+                pg_data_path.as_ref(),
+                "-l",
+                pg_log_path.as_ref(),
+                "start",
+            ];
+
+            background_process::start_process(
+                "storage_controller_db",
+                &self.env.base_data_dir,
+                pg_bin_dir.join("pg_ctl").as_std_path(),
+                db_start_args,
+                vec![
+                    ("LD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
+                    ("DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
+                ],
+                background_process::InitialPidFile::Create(self.postgres_pid_file()),
+                &start_args.start_timeout,
+                || self.pg_isready(&pg_bin_dir, postgres_port),
+            )
+            .await?;
+
+            // Run migrations on every startup, in case something changed.
+            self.setup_database(postgres_port).await?;
+        }
+
+        let database_url = format!("postgresql://localhost:{}/{DB_NAME}", postgres_port);
 
         // We support running a startup SQL script to fiddle with the database before we launch storcon.
         // This is used by the test suite.
@@ -339,7 +408,7 @@ impl StorageController {
                 }
             }
         };
-        let (mut client, conn) = self.connect_to_database().await?;
+        let (mut client, conn) = self.connect_to_database(postgres_port).await?;
         let conn = tokio::spawn(conn);
         let tx = client.build_transaction();
         let tx = tx.start().await?;
@@ -348,9 +417,20 @@ impl StorageController {
         drop(client);
         conn.await??;
 
+        let listen = self
+            .listen
+            .get()
+            .expect("cell is set earlier in this function");
+        let address_for_peers = Uri::builder()
+            .scheme("http")
+            .authority(format!("{}:{}", listen.ip(), listen.port()))
+            .path_and_query("")
+            .build()
+            .unwrap();
+
         let mut args = vec![
             "-l",
-            &self.listen,
+            &listen.to_string(),
             "--dev",
             "--database-url",
             &database_url,
@@ -358,10 +438,17 @@ impl StorageController {
             &humantime::Duration::from(self.config.max_offline).to_string(),
             "--max-warming-up-interval",
             &humantime::Duration::from(self.config.max_warming_up).to_string(),
+            "--address-for-peers",
+            &address_for_peers.to_string(),
         ]
         .into_iter()
         .map(|s| s.to_string())
         .collect::<Vec<_>>();
+
+        if self.config.start_as_candidate {
+            args.push("--start-as-candidate".to_string());
+        }
+
         if let Some(private_key) = &self.private_key {
             let claims = Claims::new(None, Scope::PageServerApi);
             let jwt_token =
@@ -394,15 +481,15 @@ impl StorageController {
 
         background_process::start_process(
             COMMAND,
-            &self.env.base_data_dir,
+            &instance_dir,
             &self.env.storage_controller_bin(),
             args,
             vec![
                 ("LD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
                 ("DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH".to_owned(), pg_lib_dir.to_string()),
             ],
-            background_process::InitialPidFile::Create(self.pid_file()),
-            retry_timeout,
+            background_process::InitialPidFile::Create(self.pid_file(start_args.instance_id)),
+            &start_args.start_timeout,
             || async {
                 match self.ready().await {
                     Ok(_) => Ok(true),
@@ -415,8 +502,35 @@ impl StorageController {
         Ok(())
     }
 
-    pub async fn stop(&self, immediate: bool) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-        background_process::stop_process(immediate, COMMAND, &self.pid_file())?;
+    pub async fn stop(&self, stop_args: NeonStorageControllerStopArgs) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        background_process::stop_process(
+            stop_args.immediate,
+            COMMAND,
+            &self.pid_file(stop_args.instance_id),
+        )?;
+
+        let storcon_instances = self.env.storage_controller_instances().await?;
+        for (instance_id, instanced_dir_path) in storcon_instances {
+            if instance_id == stop_args.instance_id {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            let pid_file = instanced_dir_path.join("storage_controller.pid");
+            let pid = tokio::fs::read_to_string(&pid_file)
+                .await
+                .map_err(|err| {
+                    anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to read storcon pid file at {pid_file:?}: {err}")
+                })?
+                .parse::<i32>()
+                .expect("pid is valid i32");
+
+            let other_proc_alive = !background_process::process_has_stopped(Pid::from_raw(pid))?;
+            if other_proc_alive {
+                // There is another storage controller instance running, so we return
+                // and leave the database running.
+                return Ok(());
+            }
+        }
 
         let pg_data_path = self.env.base_data_dir.join("storage_controller_db");
         let pg_bin_dir = self.get_pg_bin_dir().await?;
@@ -429,27 +543,51 @@ impl StorageController {
             .wait()
             .await?;
         if !stop_status.success() {
-            let pg_status_args = ["-D", &pg_data_path.to_string_lossy(), "status"];
-            let status_exitcode = Command::new(pg_bin_dir.join("pg_ctl"))
-                .args(pg_status_args)
-                .spawn()?
-                .wait()
-                .await?;
-
-            // pg_ctl status returns this exit code if postgres is not running: in this case it is
-            // fine that stop failed.  Otherwise it is an error that stop failed.
-            const PG_STATUS_NOT_RUNNING: i32 = 3;
-            if Some(PG_STATUS_NOT_RUNNING) == status_exitcode.code() {
-                println!("Storage controller database is already stopped");
-                return Ok(());
-            } else {
-                anyhow::bail!("Failed to stop storage controller database: {stop_status}")
+            match self.is_postgres_running().await {
+                Ok(false) => {
+                    println!("Storage controller database is already stopped");
+                    return Ok(());
+                }
+                Ok(true) => {
+                    anyhow::bail!("Failed to stop storage controller database");
+                }
+                Err(err) => {
+                    anyhow::bail!("Failed to stop storage controller database: {err}");
+                }
             }
         }
 
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    async fn is_postgres_running(&self) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
+        let pg_data_path = self.env.base_data_dir.join("storage_controller_db");
+        let pg_bin_dir = self.get_pg_bin_dir().await?;
+
+        let pg_status_args = ["-D", &pg_data_path.to_string_lossy(), "status"];
+        let status_exitcode = Command::new(pg_bin_dir.join("pg_ctl"))
+            .args(pg_status_args)
+            .spawn()?
+            .wait()
+            .await?;
+
+        // pg_ctl status returns this exit code if postgres is not running: in this case it is
+        // fine that stop failed.  Otherwise it is an error that stop failed.
+        const PG_STATUS_NOT_RUNNING: i32 = 3;
+        const PG_NO_DATA_DIR: i32 = 4;
+        const PG_STATUS_RUNNING: i32 = 0;
+        match status_exitcode.code() {
+            Some(PG_STATUS_NOT_RUNNING) => Ok(false),
+            Some(PG_NO_DATA_DIR) => Ok(false),
+            Some(PG_STATUS_RUNNING) => Ok(true),
+            Some(code) => Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
+                "pg_ctl status returned unexpected status code: {:?}",
+                code
+            )),
+            None => Err(anyhow::anyhow!("pg_ctl status returned no status code")),
+        }
+    }
+
     fn get_claims_for_path(path: &str) -> anyhow::Result<Option<Claims>> {
         let category = match path.find('/') {
             Some(idx) => &path[..idx],
@@ -475,15 +613,31 @@ impl StorageController {
         RQ: Serialize + Sized,
         RS: DeserializeOwned + Sized,
     {
-        // The configured URL has the /upcall path prefix for pageservers to use: we will strip that out
-        // for general purpose API access.
-        let listen_url = self.env.control_plane_api.clone().unwrap();
-        let url = Url::from_str(&format!(
-            "http://{}:{}/{path}",
-            listen_url.host_str().unwrap(),
-            listen_url.port().unwrap()
-        ))
-        .unwrap();
+        // In the special case of the `storage_controller start` subcommand, we wish
+        // to use the API endpoint of the newly started storage controller in order
+        // to pass the readiness check. In this scenario [`Self::listen`] will be set
+        // (see [`Self::start`]).
+        //
+        // Otherwise, we infer the storage controller api endpoint from the configured
+        // control plane API.
+        let url = if let Some(socket_addr) = self.listen.get() {
+            Url::from_str(&format!(
+                "http://{}:{}/{path}",
+                socket_addr.ip().to_canonical(),
+                socket_addr.port()
+            ))
+            .unwrap()
+        } else {
+            // The configured URL has the /upcall path prefix for pageservers to use: we will strip that out
+            // for general purpose API access.
+            let listen_url = self.env.control_plane_api.clone().unwrap();
+            Url::from_str(&format!(
+                "http://{}:{}/{path}",
+                listen_url.host_str().unwrap(),
+                listen_url.port().unwrap()
+            ))
+            .unwrap()
+        };
 
         let mut builder = self.client.request(method, url);
         if let Some(body) = body {