diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 7b5682686d8..421c08c5921 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
     </repositories>
 
     <dependencies>
-            <dependency>
+        <dependency>
             <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
             <artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
             <version>1.3</version>
@@ -285,6 +285,7 @@
                 <includes>
                     <include>**/*.*</include>
                 </includes>
+                <filtering>true</filtering>
             </resource>
         </resources>
 
@@ -331,26 +332,27 @@
                             <jvmOutputAction>pipe,warn</jvmOutputAction>
                             <leaveTemporary>true</leaveTemporary>
                             <listeners>
-                                <report-ant-xml mavenExtensions="true" dir="${project.build.directory}/surefire-reports" />
-                                <report-text 
-                                    showThrowable="true" 
-                                    showStackTraces="true" 
-                                    showOutput="onerror" 
-                                    showStatusOk="false" 
-                                    showStatusError="true" 
-                                    showStatusFailure="true" 
-                                    showStatusIgnored="true" 
-                                    showSuiteSummary="true"
-                                    timestamps="false" />
-                                 <report-execution-times file="${basedir}/.local-execution-hints.log"/>
+                                <report-ant-xml mavenExtensions="true"
+                                                dir="${project.build.directory}/surefire-reports"/>
+                                <report-text
+                                        showThrowable="true"
+                                        showStackTraces="true"
+                                        showOutput="onerror"
+                                        showStatusOk="false"
+                                        showStatusError="true"
+                                        showStatusFailure="true"
+                                        showStatusIgnored="true"
+                                        showSuiteSummary="true"
+                                        timestamps="false"/>
+                                <report-execution-times file="${basedir}/.local-execution-hints.log"/>
                             </listeners>
                             <assertions>
-                                <enable />
+                                <enable/>
                             </assertions>
                             <parallelism>${tests.jvms}</parallelism>
                             <balancers>
                                 <execution-times>
-                                    <fileset dir="${basedir}" includes=".local-execution-hints.log" />
+                                    <fileset dir="${basedir}" includes=".local-execution-hints.log"/>
                                 </execution-times>
                             </balancers>
                             <includes>
@@ -380,7 +382,8 @@
                                 <tests.slow>${tests.slow}</tests.slow>
                                 <es.node.local>${env.ES_TEST_LOCAL}</es.node.local>
                                 <es.transport.tcp.compress>${env.ES_TEST_COMPRESS}</es.transport.tcp.compress>
-                                <es.action.wait_on_mapping_change>${env.ES_WAIT_ON_MAPPING_CHANGE}</es.action.wait_on_mapping_change>
+                                <es.action.wait_on_mapping_change>${env.ES_WAIT_ON_MAPPING_CHANGE}
+                                </es.action.wait_on_mapping_change>
                                 <java.awt.headless>true</java.awt.headless>
                             </systemProperties>
                         </configuration>
@@ -391,9 +394,9 @@
                 <!-- we skip surefire to work with randomized testing above -->
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-                 <version>2.15</version>
+                <version>2.15</version>
                 <configuration>
-                   <skipTests>true</skipTests>
+                    <skipTests>true</skipTests>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
@@ -532,6 +535,23 @@
                     </execution>
                 </executions>
             </plugin>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+                <artifactId>buildnumber-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>1.2</version>
+                <executions>
+                    <execution>
+                        <phase>validate</phase>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>create</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                    </execution>
+                </executions>
+                <configuration>
+                    <doCheck>false</doCheck>
+                    <doUpdate>false</doUpdate>
+                </configuration>
+            </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                 <executions>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Build.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Build.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3b8493a60bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Build.java
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to ElasticSearch and Shay Banon 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.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.FastStringReader;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.Streams;
+import org.joda.time.DateTimeZone;
+import org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat;
+
+import java.util.Properties;
+
+/**
+ */
+public class Build {
+
+    public static final Build CURRENT;
+
+    static {
+        String hash = "NA";
+        String hashShort = "NA";
+        String timestamp = "NA";
+
+        try {
+            String properties = Streams.copyToStringFromClasspath("/es-build.properties");
+            Properties props = new Properties();
+            props.load(new FastStringReader(properties));
+            hash = props.getProperty("hash", hash);
+            if (!hash.equals("NA")) {
+                hashShort = hash.substring(0, 7);
+            }
+            String gitTimestampRaw = props.getProperty("timestamp");
+            if (gitTimestampRaw != null) {
+                timestamp = ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeNoMillis().withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC).print(Long.parseLong(gitTimestampRaw));
+            }
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            // just ignore...
+        }
+
+        CURRENT = new Build(hash, hashShort, timestamp);
+    }
+
+    private String hash;
+    private String hashShort;
+    private String timestamp;
+
+    Build(String hash, String hashShort, String timestamp) {
+        this.hash = hash;
+        this.hashShort = hashShort;
+        this.timestamp = timestamp;
+    }
+
+    public String hash() {
+        return hash;
+    }
+
+    public String hashShort() {
+        return hashShort;
+    }
+
+    public String timestamp() {
+        return timestamp;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
index 9767123330c..ea1caf3fb2f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ public class Version implements Serializable {
     }
 
     public static void main(String[] args) {
-        System.out.println("ElasticSearch Version: " + Version.CURRENT + ", JVM: " + JvmInfo.jvmInfo().version() + "(" + JvmInfo.jvmInfo().vmVersion() + ")");
+        System.out.println("Version: " + Version.CURRENT + ", Build: " + Build.CURRENT.hashShort() + "/" + Build.CURRENT.timestamp() + ", JVM: " + JvmInfo.jvmInfo().version());
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/node/internal/InternalNode.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/node/internal/InternalNode.java
index b75cea30b9e..08de00bf105 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/node/internal/InternalNode.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/node/internal/InternalNode.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.node.internal;
 
+import org.elasticsearch.Build;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionModule;
@@ -119,7 +120,9 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
         Tuple<Settings, Environment> tuple = InternalSettingsPerparer.prepareSettings(pSettings, loadConfigSettings);
 
         ESLogger logger = Loggers.getLogger(Node.class, tuple.v1().get("name"));
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: initializing ...", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("version[{}], pid[{}], build[{}/{}]", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid(), Build.CURRENT.hashShort(), Build.CURRENT.timestamp());
+
+        logger.info("initializing ...");
 
         if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
             Environment env = tuple.v2();
@@ -170,7 +173,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
 
         client = injector.getInstance(Client.class);
 
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: initialized", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("initialized");
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -189,7 +192,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
         }
 
         ESLogger logger = Loggers.getLogger(Node.class, settings.get("name"));
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: starting ...", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("starting ...");
 
         // hack around dependency injection problem (for now...)
         injector.getInstance(Discovery.class).setAllocationService(injector.getInstance(AllocationService.class));
@@ -219,7 +222,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
         }
         injector.getInstance(BulkUdpService.class).start();
 
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: started", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("started");
 
         return this;
     }
@@ -230,7 +233,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
             return this;
         }
         ESLogger logger = Loggers.getLogger(Node.class, settings.get("name"));
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: stopping ...", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("stopping ...");
 
         injector.getInstance(BulkUdpService.class).stop();
         if (settings.getAsBoolean("http.enabled", true)) {
@@ -264,7 +267,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
             injector.getInstance(plugin).stop();
         }
 
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: stopped", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("stopped");
 
         return this;
     }
@@ -278,7 +281,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
         }
 
         ESLogger logger = Loggers.getLogger(Node.class, settings.get("name"));
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: closing ...", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("closing ...");
 
         StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch("node_close");
         stopWatch.start("bulk.udp");
@@ -357,7 +360,7 @@ public final class InternalNode implements Node {
         CachedStreams.clear();
         ThreadLocals.clearReferencesThreadLocals();
 
-        logger.info("{{}}[{}]: closed", Version.CURRENT, JvmInfo.jvmInfo().pid());
+        logger.info("closed");
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/main/RestMainAction.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/main/RestMainAction.java
index d443f868a68..d3d42740c98 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/main/RestMainAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/main/RestMainAction.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.rest.action.main;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Constants;
+import org.elasticsearch.Build;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
@@ -77,14 +78,16 @@ public class RestMainAction extends BaseRestHandler {
                         builder.field("name", settings.get("name"));
                     }
                     builder.startObject("version")
-                        .field("number", Version.CURRENT.number())
-                        .field("snapshot_build", Version.CURRENT.snapshot)
-                        // We use the lucene version from lucene constants since
-                        // this includes bugfix release version as well and is already in
-                        // the right format. We can also be sure that the format is maitained
-                        // since this is also recorded in lucene segments and has BW compat
-                        .field("lucene_version", Constants.LUCENE_MAIN_VERSION)
-                    .endObject();
+                            .field("number", Version.CURRENT.number())
+                            .field("build_hash", Build.CURRENT.hash())
+                            .field("build_timestamp", Build.CURRENT.timestamp())
+                            .field("build_snapshot", Version.CURRENT.snapshot)
+                                    // We use the lucene version from lucene constants since
+                                    // this includes bugfix release version as well and is already in
+                                    // the right format. We can also be sure that the format is maitained
+                                    // since this is also recorded in lucene segments and has BW compat
+                            .field("lucene_version", Constants.LUCENE_MAIN_VERSION)
+                            .endObject();
                     builder.field("tagline", "You Know, for Search");
                     builder.endObject();
                     channel.sendResponse(new XContentRestResponse(request, status, builder));
diff --git a/src/main/resources/es-build.properties b/src/main/resources/es-build.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..563ecddcaf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/es-build.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+version=${project.version}
+hash=${buildNumber}
+timestamp=${timestamp}