diff --git a/ctl/common.go b/ctl/common.go
index 7ba2df2f7..558cdece3 100644
--- a/ctl/common.go
+++ b/ctl/common.go
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 package ctl
 
 import (
+	"net"
+	"time"
+
+	gohttp "net/http"
+
 	"github.com/molecula/featurebase/v2/http"
 	"github.com/molecula/featurebase/v2/logger"
 	"github.com/molecula/featurebase/v2/server"
@@ -25,6 +30,14 @@ func SetTLSConfig(flags *pflag.FlagSet, prefix string, certificatePath *string,
 	flags.BoolVarP(enableClientVerification, prefix+"tls.enable-client-verification", "", false, "Enable TLS certificate client verification for incoming connections")
 }
 
+// default dial timeout is 30s for some reason which makes testing
+// failures/retries really awkward. I don't think we need it that
+// high, so I set it to 1s here... let's see what happens.
+func clientOptions(client *gohttp.Client, dialer *net.Dialer) *gohttp.Client {
+	dialer.Timeout = time.Second * 1
+	return client
+}
+
 // commandClient returns a pilosa.InternalHTTPClient for the command
 func commandClient(cmd CommandWithTLSSupport, opts ...http.InternalClientOption) (*http.InternalClient, error) {
 	tls := cmd.TLSConfiguration()
@@ -32,7 +45,7 @@ func commandClient(cmd CommandWithTLSSupport, opts ...http.InternalClientOption)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "getting tls config")
 	}
-	client, err := http.NewInternalClient(cmd.TLSHost(), http.GetHTTPClient(tlsConfig), opts...)
+	client, err := http.NewInternalClient(cmd.TLSHost(), http.GetHTTPClient(tlsConfig, clientOptions), opts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "getting internal client")
 	}
diff --git a/ctl/restore.go b/ctl/restore.go
index f7d669f09..b7f1fb2dc 100644
--- a/ctl/restore.go
+++ b/ctl/restore.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"math"
 	"net/http"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -137,8 +138,7 @@ func (cmd *RestoreCommand) restoreSchema(ctx context.Context, primary *topology.
 	if len(existingSchema) == 0 {
 		cmd.Logger().Printf("Load Schema")
 		url := primary.URI.Path("/schema")
-		client := retryablehttp.NewClient()
-		client.RetryWaitMax = cmd.RetryPeriod
+		client := cmd.newClient()
 		_, err = client.Post(url, "application/json", f)
 	} else {
 		schema := &pilosa.Schema{}
@@ -185,6 +185,27 @@ func retryWith400(ctx context.Context, resp *http.Response, err error) (bool, er
 	return retryablehttp.DefaultRetryPolicy(ctx, resp, err)
 }
 
+// This logic is taken from featurebase/http/client.go If this logic
+// is not the same as what's there, that could be a problem. Ideally
+// all network calls from restore would go through the client and this
+// would not longer be needed.
+func (cmd *RestoreCommand) newClient() *retryablehttp.Client {
+	min := time.Millisecond * 100
+
+	// do some math to figure out how many attempts we need to get our
+	// total sleep time close to the period
+	attempts := math.Log2(float64(cmd.RetryPeriod)) - math.Log2(float64(min))
+	attempts += 0.3 // mmmm, fudge
+	if attempts < 1 {
+		attempts = 1
+	}
+	client := retryablehttp.NewClient()
+	client.RetryWaitMin = min
+	client.RetryMax = int(attempts)
+	client.CheckRetry = retryWith400
+	return client
+}
+
 func (cmd *RestoreCommand) restoreIDAlloc(ctx context.Context, primary *topology.Node) error {
 	logger := cmd.Logger()
 
@@ -200,9 +221,7 @@ func (cmd *RestoreCommand) restoreIDAlloc(ctx context.Context, primary *topology
 	logger.Printf("Load idalloc")
 	url := primary.URI.Path("/internal/idalloc/restore")
 
-	client := retryablehttp.NewClient()
-	client.RetryWaitMax = cmd.RetryPeriod
-	client.CheckRetry = retryWith400
+	client := cmd.newClient()
 	_, err = client.Post(url, "application/octet-stream", f)
 	return err
 }
@@ -279,9 +298,7 @@ func (cmd *RestoreCommand) restoreShard(ctx context.Context, filename string) er
 		req = req.WithContext(ctx)
 		req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/octet-stream")
 
-		client := retryablehttp.NewClient()
-		client.RetryWaitMax = cmd.RetryPeriod
-		client.CheckRetry = retryWith400
+		client := cmd.newClient()
 		resp, err := client.Do(req)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
diff --git a/http/client.go b/http/client.go
index 222499794..8d3437bb5 100644
--- a/http/client.go
+++ b/http/client.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"math"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
@@ -64,12 +65,22 @@ type InternalClientOption func(c *InternalClient)
 
 // WithClientRetryPeriod is the max amount of total time the client will
 // retry failed requests using exponential backoff.
-func WithClientRetryPeriod(waitMax time.Duration) InternalClientOption {
+func WithClientRetryPeriod(period time.Duration) InternalClientOption {
+	min := time.Millisecond * 100
+
+	// do some math to figure out how many attempts we need to get our
+	// total sleep time close to the period
+	attempts := math.Log2(float64(period)) - math.Log2(float64(min))
+	attempts += 0.3 // mmmm, fudge
+	if attempts < 1 {
+		attempts = 1
+	}
+	fmt.Println("attempts: ", int(attempts))
 	return func(c *InternalClient) {
-		fmt.Println("client w/ retry policy", waitMax)
 		rc := retryablehttp.NewClient()
 		rc.HTTPClient = c.httpClient
-		rc.RetryWaitMax = waitMax
+		rc.RetryWaitMin = min
+		rc.RetryMax = int(attempts)
 		rc.CheckRetry = retryWith400Policy
 		c.retryableClient = rc
 	}
@@ -109,7 +120,6 @@ func NewInternalClientFromURI(defaultURI *pnet.URI, remoteClient *http.Client, o
 	}
 
 	if ic.retryableClient == nil {
-		fmt.Println("no retry policy")
 		rc := retryablehttp.NewClient()
 		rc.HTTPClient = ic.httpClient
 		rc.CheckRetry = noRetryPolicy
diff --git a/http/handler.go b/http/handler.go
index 05b65aa58..7ef5eda37 100644
--- a/http/handler.go
+++ b/http/handler.go
@@ -2593,14 +2593,17 @@ func (s queryValidationSpec) validate(query url.Values) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-func GetHTTPClient(t *tls.Config) *http.Client {
+type ClientOption func(client *http.Client, dialer *net.Dialer) *http.Client
+
+func GetHTTPClient(t *tls.Config, opts ...ClientOption) *http.Client {
+	dialer := &net.Dialer{
+		Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
+		KeepAlive: 30 * time.Second,
+		DualStack: true,
+	}
 	transport := &http.Transport{
-		Proxy: http.ProxyFromEnvironment,
-		DialContext: (&net.Dialer{
-			Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
-			KeepAlive: 30 * time.Second,
-			DualStack: true,
-		}).DialContext,
+		Proxy:                 http.ProxyFromEnvironment,
+		DialContext:           dialer.DialContext,
 		MaxIdleConns:          1000,
 		MaxIdleConnsPerHost:   200,
 		IdleConnTimeout:       90 * time.Second,
@@ -2610,7 +2613,12 @@ func GetHTTPClient(t *tls.Config) *http.Client {
 	if t != nil {
 		transport.TLSClientConfig = t
 	}
-	return &http.Client{Transport: transport}
+
+	client := &http.Client{Transport: transport}
+	for _, opt := range opts {
+		client = opt(client, dialer)
+	}
+	return client
 }
 
 // handlePostImportAtomicRecord handles /import-atomic-record requests
diff --git a/internal/clustertests/cluster_test.go b/internal/clustertests/cluster_test.go
index af89abc2a..e23d10f8c 100644
--- a/internal/clustertests/cluster_test.go
+++ b/internal/clustertests/cluster_test.go
@@ -149,22 +149,23 @@ func TestClusterStuff(t *testing.T) {
 		// now do backup with all nodes down and too short a timeout
 		// so it fails. Has be to be all 3 because the cluster has
 		// replicas=3 and the backup command will retry on replicas.
-		if err = sendCmd("docker", "stop", "clustertests_pilosa2_1"); err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("sending stop command: %v", err)
-		}
 		if backupCmd, err = startCmd(
-			"featurebase", "backup", "--host=pilosa1:10101", fmt.Sprintf("--output=%s", tmpdir+"/backuptest2"), "--retry-period=0.5s"); err != nil {
+			"featurebase", "backup", "--host=pilosa1:10101", fmt.Sprintf("--output=%s", tmpdir+"/backuptest2"), "--retry-period=200ms"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("sending second backup command: %v", err)
 		}
-		time.Sleep(time.Millisecond * 5) // want the backup to get started, then fail
+		time.Sleep(time.Millisecond * 10) // want the backup to get started, then fail
 		if err = sendCmd("docker", "stop", "clustertests_pilosa1_1"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("sending stop command: %v", err)
 		}
+		if err = sendCmd("docker", "stop", "clustertests_pilosa2_1"); err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("sending stop command: %v", err)
+		}
 		if err = sendCmd("docker", "stop", "clustertests_pilosa3_1"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("sending stop command: %v", err)
 		}
 
 		time.Sleep(time.Second * 5)
+
 		if err = sendCmd("docker", "start", "clustertests_pilosa1_1"); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("sending start command: %v", err)
 		}