diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index ed3f4c437f8..95e7218f401 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import org.gradle.plugins.ide.eclipse.model.AccessRule
 import org.gradle.plugins.ide.eclipse.model.SourceFolder
 import org.gradle.util.DistributionLocator
 import org.gradle.util.GradleVersion
-
 import static org.elasticsearch.gradle.util.GradleUtils.maybeConfigure
 
 plugins {
@@ -46,6 +45,7 @@ apply from: 'gradle/runtime-jdk-provision.gradle'
 apply from: 'gradle/ide.gradle'
 apply from: 'gradle/forbidden-dependencies.gradle'
 apply from: 'gradle/formatting.gradle'
+apply from: 'gradle/local-distribution.gradle'
 
 // common maven publishing configuration
 allprojects {
diff --git a/gradle/local-distribution.gradle b/gradle/local-distribution.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ed7d116a9d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gradle/local-distribution.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * 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.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * This script sets up a local distribution.
+ * To install a local distribution run `localDistro`.
+ * The local distribution will be installed to
+ * build/distributions/local
+ * */
+import org.elasticsearch.gradle.Architecture
+
+apply plugin:'elasticsearch.distribution-download'
+
+elasticsearch_distributions {
+  local {
+    flavor = 'default'
+    type = 'archive'
+    architecture = Architecture.current()
+  }
+}
+
+tasks.register('localDistro', Sync) {
+  from(elasticsearch_distributions.local.extracted)
+  into("build/distribution/local")
+  doLast {
+    logger.lifecycle("Elasticsearch distribution installed to ${destinationDir}.")
+  }
+}