diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 781135b83b..049f97ccb7 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ version: 2
 jobs:
   test-sql-13-alpine:
     machine:
-      image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01
+      image: ubuntu-2004:202107-02
     steps:
     - checkout
     - run:
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ jobs:
         - .buildcache/packages/store
   test-sql-11-alpine:
     machine:
-      image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01
+      image: ubuntu-2004:202107-02
     steps:
     - checkout
     - run:
@@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ jobs:
         - .buildcache/packages/store
   test-sql-12-alpine:
     machine:
-      image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01
+      image: ubuntu-2004:202107-02
     steps:
     - checkout
     - run:
@@ -969,14 +969,26 @@ jobs:
         - .buildcache/packages/store
   build:
     machine:
-      image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01
+      image: ubuntu-2004:202107-02
+    resource_class: large
     steps:
     - checkout
+    - run:
+        command: |
+          which pg_isready || sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y postgresql-client
+          make DOCKER_ARGS='-d' -C testing/dbtest/docker database-up
+          until pg_isready -h 127.0.0.1; do docker container inspect boundary-sql-tests &> /dev/null || exit -1; sleep 1; done
+        name: Initialize Test Database
     - run:
         command: |
           make test-ci
         name: Run Acceptance Tests
         no_output_timeout: 15m
+    - run:
+        command: |
+          make -C testing/dbtest/docker clean
+        name: Cleanup
+        when: always
     - run:
         command: |
           echo 'export SLACK_BUILD_STATUS="fail"' >> $BASH_ENV
@@ -1467,7 +1479,7 @@ jobs:
         - .buildcache/packages/store
   test-sql-latest:
     machine:
-      image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01
+      image: ubuntu-2004:202107-02
     steps:
     - checkout
     - run:
diff --git a/.circleci/config/jobs/build.yml b/.circleci/config/jobs/build.yml
index 2289ec8c14..87a76947a6 100644
--- a/.circleci/config/jobs/build.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config/jobs/build.yml
@@ -1,13 +1,25 @@
+resource_class: large
 machine:
-  image: 'ubuntu-1604:201903-01'
+  image: 'ubuntu-2004:202107-02'
 working_directory: ~/boundary
 steps:
 - checkout
+- run:
+    name: "Initialize Test Database"
+    command: |
+      which pg_isready || sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y postgresql-client
+      make DOCKER_ARGS='-d' -C testing/dbtest/docker database-up
+      until pg_isready -h 127.0.0.1; do docker container inspect boundary-sql-tests &> /dev/null || exit -1; sleep 1; done
 - run:
     name: "Run Acceptance Tests"
     no_output_timeout: 15m
     command: |
       make test-ci
+- run:
+    name: "Cleanup"
+    when: always
+    command: |
+      make -C testing/dbtest/docker clean
 - slack/status:
     fail_only: true
     only_for_branches: master
diff --git a/.circleci/config/jobs/test-sql.yml b/.circleci/config/jobs/test-sql.yml
index c651d2d5e0..f82933aa11 100644
--- a/.circleci/config/jobs/test-sql.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config/jobs/test-sql.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 machine:
-  image: 'ubuntu-1604:201903-01'
+  image: 'ubuntu-2004:202107-02'
 working_directory: ~/boundary
 parameters:
   postgres-version:
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index b06d3bfb8d..6cd3dfcd65 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -70,7 +70,40 @@ Any bug fixes fall into this section.
 
 ## Testing
 
-To run the entire test suite run this command in the root of the project:
+Most tests require a postgres database instance to successfully run.
+This is provided via docker
+by running a customized postgres image that is optimized for boundary tests.
+
+Before running the test suite, this docker container must be started:
+
+```
+$ make test-database-up
+```
+
+This can take a few seconds to initialize as it will
+create a template database with the boundary migrations.
+The progress can be checked b running:
+
+```
+$ docker logs -f boundary-sql-tests
+```
+
+Once a log line like the following is seen, the container is ready for running
+tests:
+
+```
+PostgreSQL init process complete; ready for start up.
+```
+
+Alternatively if the `pg_isready` command is installed, it can be used to
+determine if the container is ready, i.e.:
+
+```
+$ until pg_isready -h 127.0.0.1; do sleep 1; done
+```
+
+To run the entire test suite run this command in the root of the project
+once the test database is ready:
 
 ```
 $ make test
@@ -88,3 +121,65 @@ run:
 ```
 $ go test -run TestAuthTokenAuthenticator -v ./internal/auth
 ```
+
+### Stopping the test database container
+
+The test database container can be shutdown using:
+
+```
+$ make test-database-down
+```
+
+Note that the container does *not* need to be shutdown between each run of
+`make test` or `go test`.
+
+### Test database container options
+
+By default the container uses the host port of 5432.
+This can changed using an environment variable:
+
+```
+$ export TEST_DB_PORT=5433
+$ make test-database-up
+$ make test
+```
+
+The default docker image is built using the `postgres:11` base image.
+The image can be changed using a make option to test against other versions:
+
+```
+$ make IMAGE_TAG=docker.io/hashicorpboundary/postgres:12-alpine test-database-up
+$ make IMAGE_TAG=docker.io/hashicorpboundary/postgres:13-alpine test-database-up
+$ make IMAGE_TAG=docker.io/hashicorpboundary/postgres:alpine test-database-up
+```
+
+Additional options can be passed to postgres to customize and override the
+configuration in the config file of the docker image.
+See the troubleshooting section below for more details.
+
+### Troubleshooting test database container
+
+The postgres configuration file included in the image
+is optimized to support running the full test suite in parallel in CI.
+As such, there may be issues starting the container locally,
+especially in cases where the container has less then 4GB of memory.
+
+This is likely the case if the output of `docker logs boundary-sql-tests` shows:
+
+```
+pg_ctl: could not start server
+```
+
+In this case adjust the
+[max_connections](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-MAX-CONNECTIONS)
+and/or
+[shared_buffers](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/runtime-config-resource.html#GUC-SHARED-BUFFERS):
+
+```
+make PG_OPTS="-c max_connections=1000" test-database-up
+```
+
+Note that if `max_connections` is set too low, it may result in sporadic test
+failures if a connection cannot be established. In this case, reduce the number
+of concurrent tests via `GOMAXPROCS` or selectively run tests.
+
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b0bc24aef0..9a5e4c2e4b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -157,14 +157,20 @@ website-install:
 website-start:
 	@npm start --prefix website/
 
+test-database-up:
+	make -C testing/dbtest/docker database-up
+
+test-database-down:
+	make -C testing/dbtest/docker clean
+
 test-ci: install-go
 	~/.go/bin/go test ./... -v $(TESTARGS) -timeout 120m
 
 test-sql:
 	$(MAKE) -C internal/db/sqltest/ test
 
-test: 
-	~/.go/bin/go test ./... -timeout 30m
+test:
+	go test ./... -timeout 30m
 
 install-go:
 	./ci/goinstall.sh
@@ -207,7 +213,7 @@ docker-publish:
 	docker push $(IMAGE_TAG)
 	docker push hashicorp/boundary:latest
 
-.PHONY: api cli tools gen migrations proto website ci-config ci-verify set-ui-version docker docker-build docker-build-dev docker-publish 
+.PHONY: api cli tools gen migrations proto website ci-config ci-verify set-ui-version docker docker-build docker-build-dev docker-publish test-database-up test-database-down
 
 .NOTPARALLEL: