diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
index 76b3c890a63..def281a64d1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.MetaData;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexRoutingTable;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexShardRoutingTable;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRouting;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.decider.DiskThresholdDecider;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Priority;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
@@ -1569,7 +1570,12 @@ public abstract class ElasticsearchIntegrationTest extends ElasticsearchTestCase
      * In other words subclasses must ensure this method is idempotent.
      */
     protected Settings nodeSettings(int nodeOrdinal) {
-        return ImmutableSettings.EMPTY;
+        return settingsBuilder()
+                // Default the watermarks to absurdly low to prevent the tests
+                // from failing on nodes without enough disk space
+                .put(DiskThresholdDecider.CLUSTER_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_LOW_DISK_WATERMARK, "1b")
+                .put(DiskThresholdDecider.CLUSTER_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_HIGH_DISK_WATERMARK, "1b")
+                .build();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
index 1b9f0ab07f5..be9635e4537 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.action.index.MappingUpdatedAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodes;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRouting;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.decider.DiskThresholdDecider;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreaker;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.FileSystemUtils;
@@ -272,6 +273,10 @@ public final class InternalTestCluster extends TestCluster {
         if (Strings.hasLength(System.getProperty("es.logger.prefix"))) {
             builder.put("logger.prefix", System.getProperty("es.logger.level"));
         }
+        // Default the watermarks to absurdly low to prevent the tests
+        // from failing on nodes without enough disk space
+        builder.put(DiskThresholdDecider.CLUSTER_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_LOW_DISK_WATERMARK, "1b");
+        builder.put(DiskThresholdDecider.CLUSTER_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_HIGH_DISK_WATERMARK, "1b");
         defaultSettings = builder.build();
         executor = EsExecutors.newCached(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS, EsExecutors.daemonThreadFactory("test_" + clusterName));
         this.hasFilterCache = random.nextBoolean();