diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0409d72bdfe..9533848e238 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 /.idea
 /target
 .DS_Store
-.local-execution-hints.log
 *.iml
-/.settings
 /.project
+/.settings
 /.classpath
-plugin_tools
+/plugin_tools
+/.local-execution-hints.log
+/.local-*-execution-hints.log
diff --git a/dev-tools/tests.policy b/dev-tools/tests.policy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6afb5025840
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-tools/tests.policy
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+// Policy file to prevent tests from writing outside the test sandbox directory
+// PLEASE NOTE: You may need to enable other permissions when new tests are added,
+// everything not allowed here is forbidden!
+
+grant {
+  // permissions for file access, write access only to sandbox:
+  permission java.io.FilePermission "<<ALL FILES>>", "read,execute";
+  permission java.io.FilePermission "${junit4.childvm.cwd}", "read,execute,write";
+  permission java.io.FilePermission "${junit4.childvm.cwd}${/}-", "read,execute,write,delete";
+  permission java.io.FilePermission "${junit4.tempDir}${/}*", "read,execute,write,delete";
+  permission groovy.security.GroovyCodeSourcePermission "/groovy/script";
+
+  // Allow connecting to the internet anywhere
+  permission java.net.SocketPermission "*", "accept,listen,connect,resolve";
+
+  // Basic permissions needed for Lucene / Elasticsearch to work:
+  permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
+  permission java.lang.reflect.ReflectPermission "*";
+  permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "*";
+
+  // These two *have* to be spelled out a separate
+  permission java.lang.management.ManagementPermission "control";
+  permission java.lang.management.ManagementPermission "monitor";
+
+  permission java.net.NetPermission "*";
+  permission java.util.logging.LoggingPermission "control";
+  permission javax.management.MBeanPermission "*", "*";
+  permission javax.management.MBeanServerPermission "*";
+  permission javax.management.MBeanTrustPermission "*";
+
+  // Needed for some things in DNS caching in the JVM
+  permission java.security.SecurityPermission "getProperty.networkaddress.cache.ttl";
+  permission java.security.SecurityPermission "getProperty.networkaddress.cache.negative.ttl";
+
+};
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 7c4cc11edeb..51219a3f346 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+    <parent>
+        <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
+        <artifactId>elasticsearch-parent</artifactId>
+        <version>2.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    </parent>
+
     <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
     <artifactId>elasticsearch-cloud-aws</artifactId>
     <version>3.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
@@ -20,73 +27,33 @@
     </licenses>
     <scm>
         <connection>scm:git:git@github.com:elasticsearch/elasticsearch-cloud-aws.git</connection>
-        <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:elasticsearch/elasticsearch-cloud-aws.git
-        </developerConnection>
+        <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:elasticsearch/elasticsearch-cloud-aws.git</developerConnection>
         <url>http://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-cloud-aws</url>
     </scm>
 
-    <parent>
-        <groupId>org.sonatype.oss</groupId>
-        <artifactId>oss-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>7</version>
-    </parent>
-
     <properties>
-        <elasticsearch.version>2.0.0-SNAPSHOT</elasticsearch.version>
-        <lucene.version>5.0.0</lucene.version>
-        <lucene.maven.version>5.0.0-snapshot-1642891</lucene.maven.version>
         <amazonaws.version>1.9.8</amazonaws.version>
-        <tests.output>onerror</tests.output>
-        <tests.shuffle>true</tests.shuffle>
-        <tests.output>onerror</tests.output>
-        <tests.client.ratio></tests.client.ratio>
-        <tests.jvm.argline></tests.jvm.argline>
-        <es.logger.level>INFO</es.logger.level>
     </properties>
 
-    <repositories>
-        <repository>
-            <id>Lucene snapshots</id>
-            <url>https://download.elasticsearch.org/lucenesnapshots/1642891/</url>
-        </repository>
-        <repository>
-            <id>sonatype</id>
-            <url>http://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases/</url>
-        </repository>
-    </repositories>
-
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
-            <artifactId>hamcrest-core</artifactId>
-            <version>1.3.RC2</version>
-            <scope>test</scope>
-        </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
-            <artifactId>hamcrest-library</artifactId>
-            <version>1.3.RC2</version>
-            <scope>test</scope>
+            <artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting</groupId>
             <artifactId>randomizedtesting-runner</artifactId>
-            <version>2.1.10</version>
-            <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
             <artifactId>lucene-test-framework</artifactId>
-            <version>${lucene.maven.version}</version>
-            <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
-
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
             <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
-            <version>${elasticsearch.version}</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
+
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
             <artifactId>lucene-core</artifactId>
@@ -94,17 +61,16 @@
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
 
+        <!-- AWS SDK -->
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
             <artifactId>aws-java-sdk-ec2</artifactId>
             <version>${amazonaws.version}</version>
-            <scope>compile</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
             <artifactId>aws-java-sdk-s3</artifactId>
             <version>${amazonaws.version}</version>
-            <scope>compile</scope>
         </dependency>
 
         <!-- We need to explicitly set the common codec version since aws-java-sdk pulls the wrong version -->
@@ -118,19 +84,14 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>log4j</groupId>
             <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
-            <version>1.2.17</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
-            <optional>true</optional>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
             <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
-            <version>${elasticsearch.version}</version>
             <type>test-jar</type>
-            <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
-
     </dependencies>
 
     <build>
@@ -144,16 +105,10 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.0</version>
-                <configuration>
-                    <source>1.7</source>
-                    <target>1.7</target>
-                </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting</groupId>
                 <artifactId>junit4-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.0.14</version>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
                         <id>tests</id>
@@ -241,27 +196,14 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.13</version>
-                <configuration>
-                    <skip>true</skip>
-                </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.2.1</version>
-                <executions>
-                    <execution>
-                        <id>attach-sources</id>
-                        <goals>
-                            <goal>jar</goal>
-                        </goals>
-                    </execution>
-                </executions>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.4</version>
                 <configuration>
                     <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
                     <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/releases/</outputDirectory>