diff --git a/pkg/es/config/config.go b/pkg/es/config/config.go
index 28f9ae901df..ebe729c3ed3 100644
--- a/pkg/es/config/config.go
+++ b/pkg/es/config/config.go
@@ -466,7 +466,6 @@ func addLoggerOptions(options []elastic.ClientOptionFunc, logLevel string) ([]el
 	prodConfig := zap.NewProductionConfig()
 
 	var lvl zapcore.Level
-	var loggerOpts []zapgrpc.Option
 	var setLogger func(logger elastic.Logger) elastic.ClientOptionFunc
 
 	switch logLevel {
@@ -490,7 +489,7 @@ func addLoggerOptions(options []elastic.ClientOptionFunc, logLevel string) ([]el
 	}
 
 	// Elastic client requires a "Printf"-able logger.
-	l := zapgrpc.NewLogger(esLogger, loggerOpts...)
+	l := zapgrpc.NewLogger(esLogger)
 	options = append(options, setLogger(l))
 	return options, nil
 }
diff --git a/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/create.sh b/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/create.sh
index 76fef2ab68e..1c0d1377b5d 100755
--- a/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/create.sh
+++ b/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/create.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ function usage {
     >&2 echo "  DEPENDENCIES_TTL   - time to live for dependencies data, in seconds (default: 0, no TTL)"
     >&2 echo "  KEYSPACE           - keyspace (default: jaeger_v1_{datacenter})"
     >&2 echo "  REPLICATION_FACTOR - replication factor for prod (default: 2 for prod, 1 for test)"
+    >&2 echo "  VERSION            - Cassandra backend version, 3 or 4 (default: 4). Ignored if template is is provided."
     >&2 echo ""
     >&2 echo "The template-file argument must be fully qualified path to a v00#.cql.tmpl template file."
     >&2 echo "If omitted, the template file with the highest available version will be used."
@@ -20,17 +21,7 @@ function usage {
 
 trace_ttl=${TRACE_TTL:-172800}
 dependencies_ttl=${DEPENDENCIES_TTL:-0}
-
-# Extract cassandra version
-#
-# $ cqlsh -e "show version"
-# [cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.11 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
-#
-cas_version=$(cqlsh -e "show version" \
-    | awk -F "|" '{print $2}' \
-    | awk -F " " '{print $2}' \
-    | awk -F "." '{print $1}' \
-)
+cas_version=${VERSION:-4}
 
 template=$1
 if [[ "$template" == "" ]]; then
@@ -54,7 +45,7 @@ elif [[ "$MODE" == "prod" ]]; then
     datacenter=$DATACENTER
     replication_factor=${REPLICATION_FACTOR:-2}
     replication="{'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', '$datacenter': '${replication_factor}' }"
-elif [[ "$MODE" == "test" ]]; then 
+elif [[ "$MODE" == "test" ]]; then
     datacenter=${DATACENTER:-'test'}
     replication_factor=${REPLICATION_FACTOR:-1}
     replication="{'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': '${replication_factor}'}"
diff --git a/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/docker.sh b/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/docker.sh
index ca812fb2011..69da932244d 100755
--- a/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/docker.sh
+++ b/plugin/storage/cassandra/schema/docker.sh
@@ -14,15 +14,18 @@ MODE=${MODE:-"test"}
 TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE:-""}
 USER=${CASSANDRA_USERNAME:-""}
 PASSWORD=${CASSANDRA_PASSWORD:-""}
+SCHEMA_SCRIPT=${SCHEMA_SCRIPT:-"/cassandra-schema/create.sh"}
+
+CQLSH_CMD="${CQLSH} ${CQLSH_SSL} ${CQLSH_HOST} ${CQLSH_PORT}"
+if [ ! -z "$PASSWORD" ]; then
+  CQLSH_CMD="${CQLSH_CMD} -u ${USER} -p ${PASSWORD}"
+fi
 
 total_wait=0
 while true
 do
-  if [ -z "$PASSWORD" ]; then
-    ${CQLSH} ${CQLSH_SSL} ${CQLSH_HOST} ${CQLSH_PORT} -e "describe keyspaces"
-  else
-    ${CQLSH} ${CQLSH_SSL} ${CQLSH_HOST} ${CQLSH_PORT} -u ${USER} -p ${PASSWORD} -e "describe keyspaces"
-  fi
+  echo "Checking if Cassandra is up at ${CQLSH_HOST}:${CQLSH_PORT}."
+  ${CQLSH_CMD} -e "describe keyspaces"
   if (( $? == 0 )); then
     break
   else
@@ -36,11 +39,20 @@ do
   fi
 done
 
-echo "Generating the schema for the keyspace ${KEYSPACE} and datacenter ${DATACENTER}"
+# Extract cassandra version
+#
+# $ cqlsh -e "show version"
+# [cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.11 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
+VERSION=
+if [ -z "$TEMPLATE" ]; then
+  VERSION=$(${CQLSH_CMD} -e "show version" \
+      | awk -F "|" '{print $2}' \
+      | awk -F " " '{print $2}' \
+      | awk -F "." '{print $1}' \
+  )
+  echo "Cassandra version detected: ${VERSION}"
+fi
 
+echo "Generating the schema for the keyspace ${KEYSPACE} and datacenter ${DATACENTER}."
 
-if [ -z "$PASSWORD" ]; then
-  MODE="${MODE}" DATACENTER="${DATACENTER}" KEYSPACE="${KEYSPACE}" /cassandra-schema/create.sh "${TEMPLATE}" | ${CQLSH} ${CQLSH_SSL} ${CQLSH_HOST} ${CQLSH_PORT}
-else
-  MODE="${MODE}" DATACENTER="${DATACENTER}" KEYSPACE="${KEYSPACE}" /cassandra-schema/create.sh "${TEMPLATE}" | ${CQLSH} ${CQLSH_SSL} ${CQLSH_HOST} ${CQLSH_PORT} -u ${USER} -p ${PASSWORD}
-fi
+MODE="${MODE}" DATACENTER="${DATACENTER}" KEYSPACE="${KEYSPACE}" VERSION="${VERSION}" ${SCHEMA_SCRIPT} "${TEMPLATE}" | ${CQLSH_CMD}