diff --git a/bin/elasticsearch.in.bat b/bin/elasticsearch.in.bat
index 18e7da4ad36..6dbca4fdd25 100644
--- a/bin/elasticsearch.in.bat
+++ b/bin/elasticsearch.in.bat
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ if NOT "%ES_DIRECT_SIZE%" == "" (
 set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=%ES_DIRECT_SIZE%
 )
 
-REM reduce the per-thread stack size
-set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% -Xss256k
-
 REM set to headless, just in case
 set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% -Djava.awt.headless=true
 
diff --git a/bin/elasticsearch.in.sh b/bin/elasticsearch.in.sh
index c7b92e144df..6c28bf62051 100644
--- a/bin/elasticsearch.in.sh
+++ b/bin/elasticsearch.in.sh
@@ -30,9 +30,6 @@ if [ "x$ES_DIRECT_SIZE" != "x" ]; then
     JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=${ES_DIRECT_SIZE}"
 fi
 
-# reduce the per-thread stack size
-JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Xss256k"
-
 # set to headless, just in case
 JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Djava.awt.headless=true"
 
diff --git a/dev-tools/ElasticSearch.launch b/dev-tools/ElasticSearch.launch
index 107c5c0abc6..7574d20b39f 100644
--- a/dev-tools/ElasticSearch.launch
+++ b/dev-tools/ElasticSearch.launch
@@ -13,5 +13,5 @@
 <stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.MAIN_TYPE" value="org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch"/>
 <stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.PROJECT_ATTR" value="elasticsearch"/>
 <stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.SOURCE_PATH_PROVIDER" value="org.eclipse.m2e.launchconfig.sourcepathProvider"/>
-<stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.VM_ARGUMENTS" value="-Xms256m -Xmx1g -Xss256k -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75 -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=logs/heapdump.hprof -Delasticsearch -Des.foreground=yes -Djava.library.path=lib/sigar -ea"/>
+<stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.VM_ARGUMENTS" value="-Xms256m -Xmx1g -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=75 -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=logs/heapdump.hprof -Delasticsearch -Des.foreground=yes -Djava.library.path=lib/sigar -ea"/>
 </launchConfiguration>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b2f860505c1..19438b9732f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -494,7 +494,6 @@
                             <jvmArgs>
                                 <param>-Xmx${tests.heap.size}</param>
                                 <param>-Xms${tests.heap.size}</param>
-                                <param>-Xss256k</param>
                                 <param>-XX:MaxPermSize=128m</param>
                                 <param>-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=512m</param>
                                 <param>-Des.logger.prefix=</param>