diff --git a/src/tests/ftest/container/boundary.py b/src/tests/ftest/container/boundary.py
index a6687a7a93a..915b9a4cd7a 100644
--- a/src/tests/ftest/container/boundary.py
+++ b/src/tests/ftest/container/boundary.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """
   (C) Copyright 2022-2023 Intel Corporation.
-  (C) Copyright 2025 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
+  (C) Copyright 2025-2026 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
 
   SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause-Patent
 """
@@ -104,9 +104,10 @@ def create_pools(self, num_pools, num_containers):
             self.fail('{} pool create threads failed'.format(num_failed))
         self.log.info('Created %d pools', num_pools)
 
-        # Create all containers for all pools in parallel
+        # Create all containers for all pools in parallel (specifying max_workers because of the
+        # 2-second sleep in every thread)
         container_manager = ThreadManager(
-            self.create_container_and_test, self.get_remaining_time() - 30)
+            self.create_container_and_test, self.get_remaining_time() - 30, max_workers=1024)
         all_pool_cont_args = list(itertools.product(self.pool, range(num_containers)))
         self.random.shuffle(all_pool_cont_args)
         for pool, cont_num in all_pool_cont_args:
diff --git a/src/tests/ftest/util/thread_manager.py b/src/tests/ftest/util/thread_manager.py
index 6e30c6bdee4..1e93ceeafa3 100644
--- a/src/tests/ftest/util/thread_manager.py
+++ b/src/tests/ftest/util/thread_manager.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """
 (C) Copyright 2021-2023 Intel Corporation.
+(C) Copyright 2026 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
 
 SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause-Patent
 """
@@ -77,16 +78,19 @@ class ThreadManager():
     # pylint: disable=too-many-ancestors,too-few-public-methods
     """Class to manage running any method as multiple threads."""
 
-    def __init__(self, method, timeout=None):
+    def __init__(self, method, timeout=None, max_workers=None):
         """Initialize a ThreadManager object with the the method to run as a thread.
 
         Args:
             method (callable): python method to execute in each thread
             timeout (int, optional): timeout for all thread execution. Defaults to None.
+            max_workers (int, optional): maximum number of threads to run concurrently.
+                Defaults to None.
         """
         self.log = getLogger()
         self.method = method
         self.timeout = timeout
+        self.max_workers = max_workers
         self.job_kwargs = []
         self.futures = {}
 
@@ -112,7 +116,7 @@ def run(self):
 
         """
         results = []
-        with ThreadPoolExecutor() as thread_executor:
+        with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=self.max_workers) as thread_executor:
             self.log.info("Submitting %d threads ...", len(self.job_kwargs))
             # Keep track of thread ids by assigning an index to each Future object
             futures = {