diff --git a/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java b/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
index a55ebe1..10d1e8e 100644
--- a/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
+++ b/tests/hostside/helper/java/android/virt/test/VirtualizationTestCaseBase.java
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@
     private static final long MICRODROID_MAX_LIFETIME_MINUTES = 20;
 
     private static final long MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES = 5;
+    protected static final long MICRODROID_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MILLIS = 30000;
+    private static final long MICRODROID_COMMAND_RETRY_INTERVAL_MILLIS = 500;
+    protected static final int MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_MAX_ATTEMPTS =
+            (int) (MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES * 60 * 1000
+                / MICRODROID_COMMAND_RETRY_INTERVAL_MILLIS);
 
     public static void prepareVirtualizationTestSetup(ITestDevice androidDevice)
             throws DeviceNotAvailableException {
@@ -128,12 +133,25 @@
         return result.getStdout().trim();
     }
 
-    // Same as runOnMicrodroid, but keeps retrying on error till timeout
-    private static String runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure(String... cmd) {
-        final long timeoutMs = 30000; // 30 sec. Microdroid is extremely slow on GCE-on-CF.
-        int attempts = (int) MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES * 60 * 1000 / 500;
+    // Same as runOnHost, but keeps retrying on error for maximum attempts times
+    // Each attempt with timeoutMs
+    public static String runOnHostRetryingOnFailure(long timeoutMs, int attempts, String... cmd) {
         CommandResult result = RunUtil.getDefault()
-                .runTimedCmdRetry(timeoutMs, 500, attempts,
+                .runTimedCmdRetry(timeoutMs,
+                        MICRODROID_COMMAND_RETRY_INTERVAL_MILLIS, attempts, cmd);
+        assertWithMessage("Command `" + cmd + "` has failed")
+                .about(command_results())
+                .that(result)
+                .isSuccess();
+        return result.getStdout().trim();
+    }
+
+    // Same as runOnMicrodroid, but keeps retrying on error for maximum attempts times
+    // Each attempt with timeoutMs
+    public static String runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure(
+            long timeoutMs, int attempts, String... cmd) {
+        CommandResult result = RunUtil.getDefault()
+                .runTimedCmdRetry(timeoutMs, MICRODROID_COMMAND_RETRY_INTERVAL_MILLIS, attempts,
                         "adb", "-s", MICRODROID_SERIAL, "shell", join(cmd));
         assertWithMessage("Command `" + cmd + "` has failed")
                 .about(command_results())
@@ -328,18 +346,14 @@
         android.run(VIRT_APEX + "bin/vm", "stop", cid);
     }
 
-    public static void rootMicrodroid() {
-        runOnHost("adb", "-s", MICRODROID_SERIAL, "root");
-        runOnHostWithTimeout(
-                MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES * 60 * 1000,
-                "adb",
-                "-s",
-                MICRODROID_SERIAL,
-                "wait-for-device");
-        // There have been tests when adb wait-for-device succeeded but the following command
-        // fails with error: closed. Hence, we run adb shell true in microdroid with retries
+    public static void rootMicrodroid() throws InterruptedException {
+        runOnHostRetryingOnFailure(MICRODROID_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MILLIS,
+                MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_MAX_ATTEMPTS, "adb", "-s", MICRODROID_SERIAL, "root");
+        // adbd reboots after root. Some commands (including wait-for-device) following this fails
+        // with error: closed. Hence, we run adb shell true in microdroid with retries
         // before returning.
-        runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure("true");
+        runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure(MICRODROID_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MILLIS,
+                MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_MAX_ATTEMPTS, "true");
     }
 
     // Establish an adb connection to microdroid by letting Android forward the connection to
diff --git a/tests/hostside/java/android/virt/test/MicrodroidTestCase.java b/tests/hostside/java/android/virt/test/MicrodroidTestCase.java
index ec2afaa..1b41d07 100644
--- a/tests/hostside/java/android/virt/test/MicrodroidTestCase.java
+++ b/tests/hostside/java/android/virt/test/MicrodroidTestCase.java
@@ -384,13 +384,16 @@
                         Optional.of(CPU_AFFINITY));
         adbConnectToMicrodroid(getDevice(), cid);
         waitForBootComplete();
-        runOnMicrodroid("logcat -c");
+        runOnMicrodroidRetryingOnFailure(MICRODROID_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MILLIS,
+                        MICRODROID_ADB_CONNECT_MAX_ATTEMPTS,
+                        "logcat -c");
         // We need root permission to write to /data/tombstones/
         rootMicrodroid();
         // Write a test tombstone file in /data/tombstones
         runOnMicrodroid("echo -n \'Test tombstone in VM with 34 bytes\'"
                     + "> /data/tombstones/transmit.txt");
-        // check if the tombstone have been tranferred from VM
+        // check if the tombstone have been tranferred from VM. This is a bit flaky - increasing
+        // timeout to 30s can result in SIGKILL inside microdroid due to logcat memory issue
         assertNotEquals(runOnMicrodroid("timeout 15s logcat | grep -m 1 "
                             + "'tombstone_transmit.microdroid:.*data/tombstones/transmit.txt'"),
                 "");