diff --git a/sql/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/sql/plugin/AbstractSqlServer.java b/sql/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/sql/plugin/AbstractSqlServer.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 684dcac7615..00000000000
--- a/sql/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/sql/plugin/AbstractSqlServer.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
- * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License;
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the Elastic License.
- */
-package org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.plugin;
-
-import org.elasticsearch.ResourceNotFoundException;
-import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamOutput;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.analysis.AnalysisException;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.jdbc.net.protocol.Proto;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.parser.ParsingException;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.protocol.shared.AbstractErrorResponse;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.protocol.shared.AbstractExceptionResponse;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.protocol.shared.AbstractProto.SqlExceptionType;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.protocol.shared.Request;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.protocol.shared.Response;
-
-import java.io.DataOutputStream;
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.PrintWriter;
-import java.io.StringWriter;
-import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
-
-import static org.elasticsearch.xpack.sql.util.StringUtils.EMPTY;
-
-public abstract class AbstractSqlServer {
-    public final void handle(Request req, ActionListener<Response> listener) {
-        try {
-            innerHandle(req, listener);
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            listener.onResponse(exceptionResponse(req, e));
-        }
-    }
-
-    protected final Response exceptionResponse(Request req, Exception e) {
-        // NOCOMMIT I wonder why we don't just teach the clients to handle ES's normal exception response.....
-        SqlExceptionType exceptionType = sqlExceptionType(e);
-
-        String message = EMPTY;
-        String cs = EMPTY;
-        if (Strings.hasText(e.getMessage())) {
-            message = e.getMessage();
-        }
-        cs = e.getClass().getName();
-
-        if (exceptionType != null) {
-            return buildExceptionResponse(req, message, cs, exceptionType);
-        } else {
-            StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
-            e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
-            return buildErrorResponse(req, message, cs, sw.toString());
-        }
-    }
-
-    protected abstract void innerHandle(Request req, ActionListener<Response> listener);
-    protected abstract AbstractExceptionResponse buildExceptionResponse(Request request, String message, String cause,
-            SqlExceptionType exceptionType);
-    protected abstract AbstractErrorResponse buildErrorResponse(Request request, String message, String cause, String stack);
-
-    public static BytesReference write(int clientVersion, Response response) throws IOException {
-        try (BytesStreamOutput array = new BytesStreamOutput();
-            DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(array)) {
-            Proto.INSTANCE.writeResponse(response, clientVersion, out);
-            out.flush();
-            return array.bytes();
-        }
-    }
-
-    private static SqlExceptionType sqlExceptionType(Throwable cause) {
-        if (cause instanceof AnalysisException || cause instanceof ResourceNotFoundException) {
-            return SqlExceptionType.DATA;
-        }
-        if (cause instanceof ParsingException) {
-            return SqlExceptionType.SYNTAX;
-        }
-        if (cause instanceof TimeoutException) {
-            return SqlExceptionType.TIMEOUT;
-        }
-
-        return null;
-    }
-}