diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/LZFStreamOutput.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/LZFStreamOutput.java
index 6167ac50b38..a4cf47761c4 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/LZFStreamOutput.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/LZFStreamOutput.java
@@ -106,7 +106,8 @@ public class LZFStreamOutput extends StreamOutput {
     public void close() throws IOException {
         flush();
         if (neverClose) {
-            reset();
+            // just reset here the LZF stream (not the underlying stream, since we might want to read from it)
+            _position = 0;
             return;
         }
         _outputStream.close();
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobStoreGateway.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobStoreGateway.java
index 256023c86ce..aa107453c06 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobStoreGateway.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobStoreGateway.java
@@ -23,17 +23,26 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterName;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterService;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.MetaData;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.*;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobContainer;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobMetaData;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobPath;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobStore;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.ImmutableBlobContainer;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.Lists;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.lzf.LZF;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.lzf.LZFEncoder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.CachedStreamInput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.CachedStreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.LZFStreamInput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.*;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContent;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayException;
 import org.elasticsearch.gateway.shared.SharedStorageGateway;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.gateway.CommitPoint;
@@ -142,28 +151,24 @@ public abstract class BlobStoreGateway extends SharedStorageGateway {
 
     @Override public void write(MetaData metaData) throws GatewayException {
         final String newMetaData = "metadata-" + (currentIndex + 1);
-        XContentBuilder builder;
+        CachedStreamOutput.Entry cachedEntry = CachedStreamOutput.popEntry();
         try {
-            builder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON);
+            StreamOutput out;
+            if (compress) {
+                out = cachedEntry.cachedLZFBytes();
+            } else {
+                out = cachedEntry.cachedBytes();
+            }
+            XContentBuilder builder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON, out);
             builder.startObject();
             MetaData.Builder.toXContent(metaData, builder, ToXContent.EMPTY_PARAMS);
             builder.endObject();
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-            throw new GatewayException("Failed to serialize metadata into gateway", e);
-        }
-
-        try {
-            byte[] data = builder.unsafeBytes();
-            int size = builder.unsafeBytesLength();
-
-            if (compress) {
-                data = LZFEncoder.encode(data, size);
-                size = data.length;
-            }
-
-            metaDataBlobContainer.writeBlob(newMetaData, new ByteArrayInputStream(data, 0, size), size);
+            builder.close();
+            metaDataBlobContainer.writeBlob(newMetaData, new ByteArrayInputStream(cachedEntry.bytes().unsafeByteArray(), 0, cachedEntry.bytes().size()), cachedEntry.bytes().size());
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw new GatewayException("Failed to write metadata [" + newMetaData + "]", e);
+        } finally {
+            CachedStreamOutput.pushEntry(cachedEntry);
         }
 
         currentIndex++;
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
index 2621a70b5f4..83a24d0e2ed 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
@@ -25,7 +25,11 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterChangedEvent;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterService;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterState;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterStateListener;
-import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.*;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexRoutingTable;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexShardRoutingTable;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.MutableShardRouting;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.RoutingNode;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRoutingState;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.Sets;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractLifecycleComponent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.lzf.LZF;
@@ -38,14 +42,23 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.CachedStreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.LZFStreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.*;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContent;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import org.elasticsearch.env.NodeEnvironment;
 import org.elasticsearch.gateway.Gateway;
 import org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayException;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.gateway.local.LocalIndexGatewayModule;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.shard.ShardId;
 
-import java.io.*;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.FilenameFilter;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
@@ -189,21 +202,20 @@ public class LocalGateway extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Gateway> implements
                     builder.metaData(event.state().metaData());
 
                     try {
+                        File stateFile = new File(location, "metadata-" + event.state().version());
+                        OutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(stateFile);
+                        if (compress) {
+                            fos = new LZFOutputStream(fos);
+                        }
                         LocalGatewayMetaState stateToWrite = builder.build();
-                        XContentBuilder xContentBuilder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON);
+                        XContentBuilder xContentBuilder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON, fos);
                         if (prettyPrint) {
                             xContentBuilder.prettyPrint();
                         }
                         xContentBuilder.startObject();
                         LocalGatewayMetaState.Builder.toXContent(stateToWrite, xContentBuilder, ToXContent.EMPTY_PARAMS);
                         xContentBuilder.endObject();
-
-                        File stateFile = new File(location, "metadata-" + event.state().version());
-                        OutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(stateFile);
-                        if (compress) {
-                            fos = new LZFOutputStream(fos);
-                        }
-                        fos.write(xContentBuilder.unsafeBytes(), 0, xContentBuilder.unsafeBytesLength());
+                        xContentBuilder.close();
                         fos.close();
 
                         FileSystemUtils.syncFile(stateFile);
@@ -265,21 +277,22 @@ public class LocalGateway extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Gateway> implements
                     }
 
                     try {
+                        File stateFile = new File(location, "shards-" + event.state().version());
+                        OutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(stateFile);
+                        if (compress) {
+                            fos = new LZFOutputStream(fos);
+                        }
+
                         LocalGatewayStartedShards stateToWrite = builder.build();
-                        XContentBuilder xContentBuilder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON);
+                        XContentBuilder xContentBuilder = XContentFactory.contentBuilder(XContentType.JSON, fos);
                         if (prettyPrint) {
                             xContentBuilder.prettyPrint();
                         }
                         xContentBuilder.startObject();
                         LocalGatewayStartedShards.Builder.toXContent(stateToWrite, xContentBuilder, ToXContent.EMPTY_PARAMS);
                         xContentBuilder.endObject();
+                        xContentBuilder.close();
 
-                        File stateFile = new File(location, "shards-" + event.state().version());
-                        OutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(stateFile);
-                        if (compress) {
-                            fos = new LZFOutputStream(fos);
-                        }
-                        fos.write(xContentBuilder.unsafeBytes(), 0, xContentBuilder.unsafeBytesLength());
                         fos.close();
 
                         FileSystemUtils.syncFile(stateFile);