diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
index 3a6c8865d2a..242b463807a 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ class ClusterFormationTasks {
 
     static void configureDistributionDependency(Project project, String distro) {
         String elasticsearchVersion = ElasticsearchProperties.version
-        String packaging = distro == 'tar' ? 'tgz' : distro
+        String packaging = distro == 'tar' ? 'tar.gz' : distro
         project.configurations {
             elasticsearchDistro
         }
diff --git a/distribution/tar/build.gradle b/distribution/tar/build.gradle
index b49058b3e42..5cf24e72f82 100644
--- a/distribution/tar/build.gradle
+++ b/distribution/tar/build.gradle
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 task buildTar(type: Tar, dependsOn: dependencyFiles) {
   baseName = 'elasticsearch'
+  extension = 'tar.gz'
   with archivesFiles
   compression = Compression.GZIP
 }