diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
index 5e4d8fd06030c..4b1ada80f0ef4 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
@@ -201,6 +201,10 @@ public void testJobRelocationIsMemoryAware() throws Exception {
         internalCluster().ensureAtLeastNumDataNodes(3);
         ensureStableClusterOnAllNodes(3);
 
+        // Wait for the cluster to be green - this means the indices have been replicated.
+
+        ensureGreen(".ml-config", ".ml-anomalies-shared", ".ml-notifications");
+
         // Open a big job.  This should go on a different node to the 4 small ones.
 
         setupJobWithoutDatafeed("big1", new ByteSizeValue(500, ByteSizeUnit.MB));