diff --git a/TESTING.asciidoc b/TESTING.asciidoc
index 2a480c57676..f35d32d9d9f 100644
--- a/TESTING.asciidoc
+++ b/TESTING.asciidoc
@@ -473,11 +473,9 @@ and in another window:
 ----------------------------------------------------
 vagrant up centos-7 && vagrant ssh centos-7
 cd $RPM
-sudo ES_CLEAN_BEFORE_TEST=true bats $BATS/*rpm*.bats
+sudo bats $BATS/*rpm*.bats
 ----------------------------------------------------
 
-At this point `ES_CLEAN_BEFORE_TEST=true` is required or tests fail spuriously.
-
 If you wanted to retest all the release artifacts on a single VM you could:
 -------------------------------------------------
 # Build all the distributions fresh but skip recompiling elasticsearch:
@@ -486,7 +484,7 @@ mvn -amd -pl distribution install -DskipTests
 mvn -Dtests.vagrant -pl qa/vagrant pre-integration-test
 vagrant up trusty && vagrant ssh trusty
 cd $TESTROOT
-sudo ES_CLEAN_BEFORE_TEST=true bats $BATS/*.bats
+sudo bats $BATS/*.bats
 -------------------------------------------------
 
 == Coverage analysis
diff --git a/qa/vagrant/pom.xml b/qa/vagrant/pom.xml
index 039dcab927a..60a1b46f932 100644
--- a/qa/vagrant/pom.xml
+++ b/qa/vagrant/pom.xml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     <!-- The documentation for how to run this is in ../../Vagrantfile -->
     <properties>
       <testScripts>*.bats</testScripts>
-      <testCommand>sudo ES_CLEAN_BEFORE_TEST=true bats $BATS/${testScripts}</testCommand>
+      <testCommand>sudo bats $BATS/${testScripts}</testCommand>
 
       <allDebBoxes>precise, trusty, vivid, wheezy, jessie</allDebBoxes>
       <allRpmBoxes>centos-6, centos-7, fedora-22, oel-7</allRpmBoxes>
diff --git a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/scripts/packaging_test_utils.bash b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/scripts/packaging_test_utils.bash
index b5fe262efd1..ffe8d86bdc6 100644
--- a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/scripts/packaging_test_utils.bash
+++ b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/scripts/packaging_test_utils.bash
@@ -305,51 +305,41 @@ clean_before_test() {
                             "/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/elasticsearch.conf" \
                             "/usr/lib/sysctl.d/elasticsearch.conf")
 
-    if [ "$ES_CLEAN_BEFORE_TEST" = "true" ]; then
-        # Kills all processes of user elasticsearch
-        if id elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-            pkill -u elasticsearch 2>/dev/null || true
-        fi
-
-        # Kills all running Elasticsearch processes
-        ps aux | grep -i "org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch" | awk {'print $2'} | xargs kill -9 > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-
-        # Removes RPM package
-        if is_rpm; then
-            rpm --quiet -e elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-        fi
-
-        if [ -x "`which yum 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
-            yum remove -y elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-        fi
-
-        # Removes DEB package
-        if is_dpkg; then
-            dpkg --purge elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-        fi
-
-        if [ -x "`which apt-get 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
-            apt-get --quiet --yes purge elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-        fi
-
-        # Removes user & group
-        userdel elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-        groupdel elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
-
-
-        # Removes all files
-        for d in "${ELASTICSEARCH_TEST_FILES[@]}"; do
-            if [ -e "$d" ]; then
-                rm -rf "$d"
-            fi
-        done
+    # Kills all processes of user elasticsearch
+    if id elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+        pkill -u elasticsearch 2>/dev/null || true
     fi
 
-    # Checks that all files are deleted
+    # Kills all running Elasticsearch processes
+    ps aux | grep -i "org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch" | awk {'print $2'} | xargs kill -9 > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+
+    # Removes RPM package
+    if is_rpm; then
+        rpm --quiet -e elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    fi
+
+    if [ -x "`which yum 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
+        yum remove -y elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    fi
+
+    # Removes DEB package
+    if is_dpkg; then
+        dpkg --purge elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    fi
+
+    if [ -x "`which apt-get 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
+        apt-get --quiet --yes purge elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    fi
+
+    # Removes user & group
+    userdel elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    groupdel elasticsearch > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+
+
+    # Removes all files
     for d in "${ELASTICSEARCH_TEST_FILES[@]}"; do
         if [ -e "$d" ]; then
-            echo "$d should not exist before running the tests" >&2
-            exit 1
+            rm -rf "$d"
         fi
     done
 }