diff --git a/tests/integration/rdb.tcl b/tests/integration/rdb.tcl
index 9cd970350..58dc6c968 100644
--- a/tests/integration/rdb.tcl
+++ b/tests/integration/rdb.tcl
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path "dbfilename" "encodings.rd
 
 set server_path [tmpdir "server.rdb-startup-test"]
 
-start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path]] {
+start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
     test {Server started empty with non-existing RDB file} {
         r debug digest
     } {0000000000000000000000000000000000000000}
@@ -33,13 +33,13 @@ start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path]] {
     r save
 }
 
-start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path]] {
+start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
     test {Server started empty with empty RDB file} {
         r debug digest
     } {0000000000000000000000000000000000000000}
 }
 
-start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path]] {
+start_server [list overrides [list "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
     test {Test RDB stream encoding} {
         for {set j 0} {$j < 1000} {incr j} {
             if {rand() < 0.9} {
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ set defaults {}
 proc start_server_and_kill_it {overrides code} {
     upvar defaults defaults srv srv server_path server_path
     set config [concat $defaults $overrides]
-    set srv [start_server [list overrides $config]]
+    set srv [start_server [list overrides $config keep_persistence true]]
     uplevel 1 $code
     kill_server $srv
 }
diff --git a/tests/support/server.tcl b/tests/support/server.tcl
index 14e59e55c..6775b125a 100644
--- a/tests/support/server.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/server.tcl
@@ -31,6 +31,16 @@ proc check_valgrind_errors stderr {
     }
 }
 
+proc clean_persistence config {
+    # we may wanna keep the logs for later, but let's clean the persistence
+    # files right away, since they can accumulate and take up a lot of space
+    set config [dict get $config "config"]
+    set rdb [format "%s/%s" [dict get $config "dir"] "dump.rdb"]
+    set aof [format "%s/%s" [dict get $config "dir"] "appendonly.aof"]
+    catch {exec rm -rf $rdb}
+    catch {exec rm -rf $aof}
+}
+
 proc kill_server config {
     # nothing to kill when running against external server
     if {$::external} return
@@ -238,19 +248,27 @@ proc start_server {options {code undefined}} {
     set baseconfig "default.conf"
     set overrides {}
     set tags {}
+    set keep_persistence false
 
     # parse options
     foreach {option value} $options {
         switch $option {
             "config" {
-                set baseconfig $value }
+                set baseconfig $value
+            }
             "overrides" {
-                set overrides $value }
+                set overrides $value
+            }
             "tags" {
                 set tags $value
-                set ::tags [concat $::tags $value] }
+                set ::tags [concat $::tags $value]
+            }
+            "keep_persistence" {
+                set keep_persistence $value
+            }
             default {
-                error "Unknown option $option" }
+                error "Unknown option $option"
+            }
         }
     }
 
@@ -436,6 +454,10 @@ proc start_server {options {code undefined}} {
 
         set ::tags [lrange $::tags 0 end-[llength $tags]]
         kill_server $srv
+        if {!$keep_persistence} {
+            clean_persistence $srv
+        }
+        set _ ""
     } else {
         set ::tags [lrange $::tags 0 end-[llength $tags]]
         set _ $srv
diff --git a/tests/unit/moduleapi/testrdb.tcl b/tests/unit/moduleapi/testrdb.tcl
index 0d26b0a26..5ba102284 100644
--- a/tests/unit/moduleapi/testrdb.tcl
+++ b/tests/unit/moduleapi/testrdb.tcl
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ tags "modules" {
 
     test {modules global are lost without aux} {
         set server_path [tmpdir "server.module-testrdb"]
-        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule" "dir" $server_path]] {
+        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule" "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
             r testrdb.set.before global1
             assert_equal "global1" [r testrdb.get.before]
         }
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ tags "modules" {
 
     test {modules are able to persist globals before and after} {
         set server_path [tmpdir "server.module-testrdb"]
-        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule 2" "dir" $server_path]] {
+        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule 2" "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
             r testrdb.set.before global1
             r testrdb.set.after global2
             assert_equal "global1" [r testrdb.get.before]
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ tags "modules" {
 
     test {modules are able to persist globals just after} {
         set server_path [tmpdir "server.module-testrdb"]
-        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule 1" "dir" $server_path]] {
+        start_server [list overrides [list loadmodule "$testmodule 1" "dir" $server_path] keep_persistence true] {
             r testrdb.set.after global2
             assert_equal "global2" [r testrdb.get.after]
         }