diff --git a/packages/kbn-es/src/cluster.js b/packages/kbn-es/src/cluster.js
index 924e29c78ba14..c528b0e1c74e2 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-es/src/cluster.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-es/src/cluster.js
@@ -260,6 +260,7 @@ exports.Cluster = class Cluster {
     const esArgs = [
       'action.destructive_requires_name=true',
       'ingest.geoip.downloader.enabled=false',
+      'cluster.routing.allocation.disk.threshold_enabled=false',
     ].concat(options.esArgs || []);
 
     // Add to esArgs if ssl is enabled
diff --git a/packages/kbn-es/src/integration_tests/cluster.test.js b/packages/kbn-es/src/integration_tests/cluster.test.js
index c4b1512331483..f3bdd49103614 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-es/src/integration_tests/cluster.test.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-es/src/integration_tests/cluster.test.js
@@ -309,6 +309,7 @@ describe('#start(installPath)', () => {
           Array [
             "action.destructive_requires_name=true",
             "ingest.geoip.downloader.enabled=false",
+            "cluster.routing.allocation.disk.threshold_enabled=false",
           ],
           undefined,
           Object {
@@ -387,6 +388,7 @@ describe('#run()', () => {
           Array [
             "action.destructive_requires_name=true",
             "ingest.geoip.downloader.enabled=false",
+            "cluster.routing.allocation.disk.threshold_enabled=false",
           ],
           undefined,
           Object {