diff --git a/bin/tests/system/stress/clean.sh b/bin/tests/system/stress/clean.sh
index b365d7cc77..0396845cbd 100644
--- a/bin/tests/system/stress/clean.sh
+++ b/bin/tests/system/stress/clean.sh
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@
 # See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
 # information regarding copyright ownership.
 
-rm -f reload.pid
-
 rm -f ns?/zones.conf
 rm -f ns?/zone*.bk
 
diff --git a/bin/tests/system/stress/tests.sh b/bin/tests/system/stress/tests.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 5466ecbbf8..0000000000
--- a/bin/tests/system/stress/tests.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-# Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
-#
-# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
-# License, v. 2.0.  If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
-# file, you can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
-#
-# See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
-# information regarding copyright ownership.
-
-set -e
-
-. ../conf.sh
-
-status=0
-
-(
-$SHELL -c "while true
-           do $RNDC -c ../common/rndc.conf -s 10.53.0.3 -p $CONTROLPORT reload 2>&1 |
-	       sed 's/^/I:ns3 /';
-	   sleep 1
-       done" & echo $! >reload.pid
-) &
-
-for i in 0 1 2 3 4
-do
-       $PERL update.pl -s 10.53.0.2 -p $PORT zone00000$i.example. &
-done
-
-echo_i "waiting for background processes to finish"
-wait
-
-echo_i "killing reload loop"
-kill $(cat reload.pid)
-
-# If the test has run to completion without named crashing, it has succeeded.
-# Otherwise, the crash will be detected by the test framework and the test will
-# fail.
-
-echo_i "exit status: $status"
-[ $status -eq 0 ] || exit 1
diff --git a/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_sh_stress.py b/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_sh_stress.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 283e2617b6..0000000000
--- a/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_sh_stress.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
-#
-# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
-# License, v. 2.0.  If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
-# file, you can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
-#
-# See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
-# information regarding copyright ownership.
-
-
-def test_stress(run_tests_sh):
-    run_tests_sh()
diff --git a/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_stress_update.py b/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_stress_update.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d326f14b7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/tests/system/stress/tests_stress_update.py
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+# Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
+#
+# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+# License, v. 2.0.  If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+# file, you can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+#
+# See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
+# information regarding copyright ownership.
+
+import concurrent.futures
+import os
+import subprocess
+import time
+import dns.query
+import dns.update
+
+
+def rndc_loop(test_state, server):
+    rndc = os.getenv("RNDC")
+    port = os.getenv("CONTROLPORT")
+
+    cmdline = [
+        rndc,
+        "-c",
+        "../common/rndc.conf",
+        "-p",
+        port,
+        "-s",
+        server,
+        "reload",
+    ]
+
+    while not test_state["finished"]:
+        subprocess.run(cmdline, check=False)
+        time.sleep(1)
+
+
+def update_zone(test_state, zone, named_port, logger):
+    server = "10.53.0.2"
+    for i in range(1000):
+        if test_state["finished"]:
+            return
+        update = dns.update.UpdateMessage(zone)
+        update.add(f"dynamic-{i}.{zone}", 300, "TXT", f"txt-{i}")
+        try:
+            response = dns.query.udp(update, server, 10, named_port)
+            assert response.rcode() == dns.rcode.NOERROR
+        except dns.exception.Timeout:
+            logger.info(f"error: query timeout for {zone}")
+
+    logger.info(f"Update of {server} zone {zone} successful")
+
+
+# If the test has run to completion without named crashing, it has succeeded.
+def test_update_stress(named_port, logger):
+    test_state = {"finished": False}
+
+    with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor:
+        executor.submit(rndc_loop, test_state, "10.53.0.3")
+
+        updaters = []
+        for i in range(5):
+            zone = f"zone00000{i}.example."
+            updaters.append(
+                executor.submit(update_zone, test_state, zone, named_port, logger)
+            )
+
+        # All the update_zone() tasks are expected to complete within 5
+        # minutes.  If they do not, we cannot assert immediately as that will
+        # cause the ThreadPoolExecutor context manager to wait indefinitely;
+        # instead, we first signal all tasks that it is time to exit and only
+        # check whether any task failed to finish within 5 minutes outside of
+        # the ThreadPoolExecutor context manager.
+        unfinished_tasks = concurrent.futures.wait(updaters, timeout=300).not_done
+        test_state["finished"] = True
+
+    assert not unfinished_tasks
diff --git a/bin/tests/system/stress/update.pl b/bin/tests/system/stress/update.pl
deleted file mode 100644
index 1276b21728..0000000000
--- a/bin/tests/system/stress/update.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,101 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-
-# Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
-#
-# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
-# License, v. 2.0.  If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
-# file, you can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
-#
-# See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
-# information regarding copyright ownership.
-
-#
-# Dynamic update test suite.
-#
-# Usage:
-#
-#   perl update_test.pl [-s server] [-p port] zone
-#
-# The server defaults to 127.0.0.1.
-# The port defaults to 53.
-#
-# The "Special NS rules" tests will only work correctly if the
-# has no NS records to begin with, or alternatively has a
-# single NS record pointing at the name "ns1" (relative to
-# the zone name).
-#
-# Installation notes:
-#
-# This program uses the Net::DNS::Resolver module.
-# You can install it by saying
-#
-#    perl -MCPAN -e "install Net::DNS"
-#
-
-use Getopt::Std;
-use Net::DNS;
-use Net::DNS::Update;
-use Net::DNS::Resolver;
-
-$opt_s = "127.0.0.1";
-$opt_p = 53;
-
-getopt('s:p:');
-
-$res = new Net::DNS::Resolver;
-$res->nameservers($opt_s);
-$res->port($opt_p);
-$res->defnames(0); # Do not append default domain.
-
-@ARGV == 1 or die
-    "usage: perl update_test.pl [-s server] [-p port] zone\n";
-
-$zone = shift @ARGV;
-
-my $failures = 0;
-
-sub assert {
-    my ($cond, $explanation) = @_;
-    if (!$cond) {
-	print "I:Test Failed: $explanation ***\n";
-	$failures++
-    }
-}
-
-sub test {
-    my ($expected, @records) = @_;
-
-    my $update = new Net::DNS::Update("$zone");
-
-    foreach $rec (@records) {
-	$update->push(@$rec);
-    }
-
-    $reply = $res->send($update);
-
-    # Did it work?
-    if (defined $reply) {
-	my $rcode = $reply->header->rcode;
-        assert($rcode eq $expected, "expected $expected, got $rcode");
-    } else {
-	print "I:Update failed: ", $res->errorstring, "\n";
-    }
-}
-
-sub section {
-    my ($msg) = @_;
-    print "I:$msg\n";
-}
-
-for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {
-    test("NOERROR", ["update", rr_add("dynamic-$i.$zone 300 TXT txt-$i" )]);
-}
-
-if ($failures) {
-    print "I:$failures tests failed.\n";
-} else {
-    print "I:Update of $opt_s zone $zone successful.\n";
-}
-exit $failures;