diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/transport/TransportClient.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/transport/TransportClient.java
index 4c2f4932de2..175c2eaf1be 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/transport/TransportClient.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/transport/TransportClient.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.support.AbstractClient;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterModule;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodeRole;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.UUIDs;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreaker;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.component.LifecycleComponent;
@@ -67,6 +68,7 @@ import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
@@ -138,6 +140,14 @@ public abstract class TransportClient extends AbstractClient {
                         .put(pluginsService.updatedSettings())
                         .put(TransportSettings.FEATURE_PREFIX + "." + TRANSPORT_CLIENT_FEATURE, true)
                         .build();
+        final Set<DiscoveryNodeRole> possibleRoles = Stream.concat(
+                DiscoveryNodeRole.BUILT_IN_ROLES.stream(),
+                pluginsService.filterPlugins(Plugin.class)
+                        .stream()
+                        .map(Plugin::getRoles)
+                        .flatMap(Set::stream))
+                .collect(Collectors.toSet());
+        DiscoveryNode.setPossibleRoles(possibleRoles);
         final List<Closeable> resourcesToClose = new ArrayList<>();
         final ThreadPool threadPool = new ThreadPool(settings);
         resourcesToClose.add(() -> ThreadPool.terminate(threadPool, 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS));