diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
index 599fea1823800..4ae16255d5e97 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
@@ -119,6 +119,15 @@ public final class IndexSettings {
             Setting.byteSizeSetting(
                     "index.translog.generation_threshold_size",
                     new ByteSizeValue(64, ByteSizeUnit.MB),
+                    /*
+                     * An empty translog occupies 43 bytes on disk. If the generation threshold is
+                     * below this, the flush thread can get stuck in an infinite loop repeatedly
+                     * rolling the generation as every new generation will already exceed the
+                     * generation threshold. However, small thresholds are useful for testing so we
+                     * do not add a large lower bound here.
+                     */
+                    new ByteSizeValue(64, ByteSizeUnit.BYTES),
+                    new ByteSizeValue(Long.MAX_VALUE, ByteSizeUnit.BYTES),
                     new Property[]{Property.Dynamic, Property.IndexScope});
 
     public static final Setting<TimeValue> INDEX_SEQ_NO_CHECKPOINT_SYNC_INTERVAL =
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/IndexShardIT.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/IndexShardIT.java
index ff5556089d28d..3313736ffcfe3 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/IndexShardIT.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/IndexShardIT.java
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ public void testMaybeFlush() throws Exception {
     }
 
     public void testMaybeRollTranslogGeneration() throws Exception {
-        final int generationThreshold = randomIntBetween(1, 512);
+        final int generationThreshold = randomIntBetween(64, 512);
         final Settings settings =
                 Settings
                         .builder()
@@ -380,7 +380,8 @@ public void testMaybeRollTranslogGeneration() throws Exception {
         int rolls = 0;
         final Translog translog = shard.getEngine().getTranslog();
         final long generation = translog.currentFileGeneration();
-        for (int i = 0; i < randomIntBetween(32, 128); i++) {
+        final int numberOfDocuments = randomIntBetween(32, 128);
+        for (int i = 0; i < numberOfDocuments; i++) {
             assertThat(translog.currentFileGeneration(), equalTo(generation + rolls));
             final ParsedDocument doc = testParsedDocument(
                     "1",