diff --git a/dev-tools/src/main/resources/ant/integration-tests.xml b/dev-tools/src/main/resources/ant/integration-tests.xml
index dfe6ce41272..30ceea60862 100644
--- a/dev-tools/src/main/resources/ant/integration-tests.xml
+++ b/dev-tools/src/main/resources/ant/integration-tests.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <project name="elasticsearch-integration-tests">
-
   <!-- our pid file for easy cleanup -->
   <property name="integ.pidfile" location="${integ.scratch}/es.pid"/>
 
@@ -124,11 +123,27 @@
     </sequential>
   </macrodef>
 
+  <!-- waits for cluster to form and have exactly two nodes -->
+  <macrodef name="waitfor-two-nodes">
+    <attribute name="port"/>
+    <attribute name="timeoutproperty"/>
+    <sequential>
+      <echo>Waiting for elasticsearch to form a cluster of two...</echo>
+      <waitfor maxwait="30" maxwaitunit="second"
+               checkevery="500" checkeveryunit="millisecond"
+               timeoutproperty="@{timeoutproperty}">
+        <http url="http://127.0.0.1:@{port}/_cluster/health?wait_for_nodes=2"/>
+      </waitfor>
+    </sequential>
+  </macrodef>
+
   <!-- start elasticsearch and wait until its ready -->
   <macrodef name="startup-elasticsearch">
       <attribute name="home" default="${integ.scratch}/elasticsearch-${elasticsearch.version}"/>
       <attribute name="spawn" default="true"/>
       <attribute name="args" default="${integ.args}"/>
+      <attribute name="es.unicast.enabled" default="false"/>
+      <attribute name="es.unicast.hosts" default=""/>
       <attribute name="es.cluster.name" default="${integ.cluster.name}"/>
       <attribute name="es.http.port" default="${integ.http.port}"/>
       <attribute name="es.transport.tcp.port" default="${integ.transport.port}"/>
@@ -146,6 +161,8 @@
 -Des.pidfile=@{es.pidfile}
 -Des.path.repo=@{home}/repo
 -Des.discovery.zen.ping.multicast.enabled=false
+-Des.discovery.zen.ping.unicast.enabled=@{es.unicast.enabled}
+-Des.discovery.zen.ping.unicast.hosts=@{es.unicast.hosts}
 -Des.script.inline=on
 -Des.script.indexed=on
 -Des.repositories.url.allowed_urls=http://snapshot.test*
@@ -183,7 +200,7 @@
 
       <local name="integ.pid"/>
       <extract-pid file="@{es.pidfile}" property="integ.pid"/>
-      <echo>External cluster started PID ${integ.pid}</echo>
+      <echo>External node started PID ${integ.pid}</echo>
     </sequential>
   </macrodef>
 
@@ -205,6 +222,40 @@
     </sequential>
   </macrodef>
 
+  <macrodef name="stop-node">
+    <attribute name="es.pidfile" default="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+    <sequential>
+      <local name="integ.pid"/>
+
+      <extract-pid file="@{es.pidfile}" property="integ.pid"/>
+      <echo>Shutting down external node PID ${integ.pid}</echo>
+
+      <exec executable="taskkill" failonerror="true" osfamily="winnt">
+        <arg value="/F"/>
+        <arg value="/PID"/>
+        <arg value="${integ.pid}"/>
+      </exec>
+      <exec executable="kill" failonerror="true" osfamily="unix">
+        <arg value="-9"/>
+        <arg value="${integ.pid}"/>
+      </exec>
+      <delete file="@{es.pidfile}"/>
+    </sequential>
+  </macrodef>
+
+  <!-- starts a unicast node on an already setup workspace-->
+  <macrodef name="start-unicast-node">
+    <attribute name="es.http.port" default="${integ.http.port}"/>
+    <attribute name="es.transport.port" default="${integ.transport.port}"/>
+    <attribute name="es.pidfile" default="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+    <attribute name="es.peer.list" />
+    <sequential>
+    <startup-elasticsearch es.pidfile="@{es.pidfile}" es.unicast.enabled="true"
+                           es.transport.tcp.port="@{es.transport.port}" es.http.port="@{es.http.port}"
+                           es.unicast.hosts="@{es.peer.list}"/>
+    </sequential>
+  </macrodef>
+
   <!-- unzip the elasticsearch zip -->
   <target name="setup-workspace" depends="stop-external-cluster">
     <sequential>
@@ -233,21 +284,7 @@
   <!-- TODO, for some more safety, add back some of the old jps logic
        and verify the pid is really an ES process! (fail otherwise) -->
   <target name="stop-external-cluster" if="integ.pidfile.exists">
-    <local name="integ.pid"/>
-
-    <extract-pid file="${integ.pidfile}" property="integ.pid"/>
-    <echo>Shutting down external cluster PID ${integ.pid}</echo>
-
-    <exec executable="taskkill" failonerror="true" osfamily="winnt">
-      <arg value="/F"/>
-      <arg value="/PID"/>
-      <arg value="${integ.pid}"/>
-    </exec>
-    <exec executable="kill" failonerror="true" osfamily="unix">
-      <arg value="-9"/>
-      <arg value="${integ.pid}"/>
-    </exec>
-    <delete file="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+    <stop-node/>
   </target>
 
   <!-- distribution tests: .zip -->
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 4b3cef39c8d..6db374e0717 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@
         <integ.temp>${integ.scratch}/temp</integ.temp>
         <integ.http.port>9400</integ.http.port>
         <integ.transport.port>9500</integ.transport.port>
+        <integ.http.port.sec>9600</integ.http.port.sec>
+        <integ.transport.port.sec>9700</integ.transport.port.sec>
         <no.commit.pattern>\bno(n|)commit\b</no.commit.pattern>
     </properties>
 
diff --git a/qa/pom.xml b/qa/pom.xml
index 066f897bbe7..d2afea8421f 100644
--- a/qa/pom.xml
+++ b/qa/pom.xml
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@
     <modules>
         <module>smoke-test-plugins</module>
         <module>smoke-test-shaded</module>
+        <module>smoke-test-multinode</module>
     </modules>
 
     <profiles>
diff --git a/qa/smoke-test-multinode/integration-tests.xml b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/integration-tests.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cd9706bde7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/integration-tests.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<project name="smoke-test-multinode"
+         xmlns:ac="antlib:net.sf.antcontrib">
+
+  <import file="${elasticsearch.integ.antfile.default}"/>
+  <property name="integ.pidfile.sec" location="${integ.scratch}/es-secondary.pid"/>
+  <available property="integ.pidfile.sec.exists" file="${integ.pidfile.sec}"/>
+
+  <target name="stop-secondary-node" if="integ.pidfile.sec.exists">
+    <stop-node es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile.sec}"/>
+  </target>
+  <target name="stop-primary-node" if="integ.pidfile.exists">
+    <stop-node es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+  </target>
+
+  <target name="start-external-multi-node-no-plugins" depends="stop-secondary-node, setup-workspace" unless="${shouldskip}">
+    <start-unicast-node es.peer.list="127.0.0.1:9700"/>
+    <ac:trycatch property="failure.message">
+      <ac:try>
+        <start-unicast-node es.http.port="9600" es.transport.port="9700"
+                            es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile.sec}"
+                            es.peer.list="127.0.0.1:${integ.transport.port}"/>
+      </ac:try>
+      <ac:catch>
+        <echo>Failed to start second node with message: ${failure.message}</echo>
+        <stop-node es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+      </ac:catch>
+    </ac:trycatch>
+    <ac:trycatch>
+      <ac:try>
+        <local name="failed.to.form.cluster"/>
+        <waitfor-two-nodes port="${integ.http.port}"
+                           timeoutproperty="failed.to.form.cluster"/>
+        <fail message="Instances did not form a cluster" if="failed.to.form.cluster"/>
+      </ac:try>
+      <ac:catch>
+        <stop-node es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile}"/>
+        <stop-node es.pidfile="${integ.pidfile.sec}"/>
+      </ac:catch>
+    </ac:trycatch>
+  </target>
+</project>
diff --git a/qa/smoke-test-multinode/pom.xml b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..20dfb385b08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,305 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <parent>
+    <groupId>org.elasticsearch.qa</groupId>
+    <artifactId>elasticsearch-qa</artifactId>
+    <version>2.0.0-beta1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  </parent>
+
+  <!-- 
+    This test unzips elasticsearch, installs each plugin,
+    starts 2 elasticsearch nodes, verifies that they form a cluster.
+  -->
+
+  <artifactId>smoke-test-multinode</artifactId>
+  <name>QA: Smoke Test Multi-Node IT</name>
+  <description>Tests that multi node IT tests work</description>
+
+  <properties>
+    <skip.unit.tests>true</skip.unit.tests>
+    <elasticsearch.integ.antfile>${project.basedir}/integration-tests.xml</elasticsearch.integ.antfile>
+    <tests.rest.suite>smoke_test_multinode</tests.rest.suite>
+    <tests.rest.load_packaged>false</tests.rest.load_packaged>
+  </properties>
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
+      <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
+      <type>test-jar</type>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+
+    <!-- Provided dependencies by elasticsearch itself  -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.elasticsearch</groupId>
+      <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-core</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-backward-codecs</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-analyzers-common</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-queries</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-memory</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-highlighter</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-queryparser</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-suggest</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-join</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-spatial</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.lucene</groupId>
+      <artifactId>lucene-expressions</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.spatial4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>spatial4j</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.vividsolutions</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jts</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.github.spullara.mustache.java</groupId>
+      <artifactId>compiler</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
+      <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.carrotsearch</groupId>
+      <artifactId>hppc</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
+      <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.joda</groupId>
+      <artifactId>joda-convert</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-smile</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-yaml</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-cbor</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
+      <artifactId>netty</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.ning</groupId>
+      <artifactId>compress-lzf</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.tdunning</groupId>
+      <artifactId>t-digest</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
+      <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>commons-cli</groupId>
+      <artifactId>commons-cli</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
+      <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
+      <classifier>indy</classifier>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>log4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>log4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>apache-log4j-extras</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>net.java.dev.jna</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jna</artifactId>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+
+    <!-- Required by the REST test framework -->
+    <!-- TODO: remove this dependency when we will have a REST Test module -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
+      <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+         <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
+         <executions>
+           <execution>
+             <id>integ-setup-dependencies</id>
+             <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
+             <goals>
+               <goal>copy</goal>
+             </goals>
+             <configuration>
+               <skip>${skip.integ.tests}</skip>
+               <useBaseVersion>true</useBaseVersion>
+               <outputDirectory>${integ.deps}/plugins</outputDirectory>
+
+               <artifactItems>
+                 <!-- elasticsearch distribution -->
+                 <artifactItem>
+                   <groupId>org.elasticsearch.distribution.zip</groupId>
+                   <artifactId>elasticsearch</artifactId>
+                   <version>${elasticsearch.version}</version>
+                   <type>zip</type>
+                   <overWrite>true</overWrite>
+                   <outputDirectory>${integ.deps}</outputDirectory>
+                 </artifactItem>
+               </artifactItems>
+             </configuration>
+           </execution>
+         </executions>
+      </plugin>
+      <!-- integration tests -->
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
+        <executions>
+          <!-- start up external cluster -->
+          <execution>
+            <id>integ-setup</id>
+            <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>run</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <target>
+                <ant antfile="${elasticsearch.integ.antfile}" target="start-external-multi-node-no-plugins">
+                  <property name="tests.jvm.argline" value="${tests.jvm.argline}"/>
+                  <property name="integ.multi.node" value="true"/>
+                </ant>
+              </target>
+              <skip>${skip.integ.tests}</skip>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+          <!-- shut down external cluster -->
+          <execution>
+            <id>integ-teardown</id>
+            <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>run</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <target>
+                <ant antfile="${elasticsearch.integ.antfile}" target="stop-external-cluster"/>
+              </target>
+              <skip>${skip.integ.tests}</skip>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+        <dependencies>
+          <dependency>
+            <groupId>ant-contrib</groupId>
+            <artifactId>ant-contrib</artifactId>
+            <version>1.0b3</version>
+            <exclusions>
+              <exclusion>
+                <groupId>ant</groupId>
+                <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
+              </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
+          </dependency>
+          <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
+            <artifactId>ant-nodeps</artifactId>
+            <version>1.8.1</version>
+          </dependency>
+        </dependencies>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
+</project>
diff --git a/qa/smoke-test-multinode/rest-api-spec/test/smoke_test_multinode/10_basic.yaml b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/rest-api-spec/test/smoke_test_multinode/10_basic.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..74066ebf6b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/rest-api-spec/test/smoke_test_multinode/10_basic.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# Integration tests for smoke testing multi-node IT
+#
+---
+"cluster health basic test, one index":
+  - do:
+      indices.create:
+        index: test_index
+        body:
+          settings:
+            index:
+              number_of_replicas: 1
+
+  - do:
+      cluster.health:
+        wait_for_status: green
+
+  - is_true:   cluster_name
+  - is_false:  timed_out
+  - gte:       { number_of_nodes:         2 }
+  - gte:       { number_of_data_nodes:    2 }
+  - gt:        { active_primary_shards:   0 }
+  - gt:        { active_shards:           0 }
+  - gte:       { relocating_shards:       0 }
+  - match:     { initializing_shards:     0 }
+  - match:     { unassigned_shards:       0 }
+  - gte:       { number_of_pending_tasks: 0 }
diff --git a/qa/smoke-test-multinode/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/smoketest/SmokeTestMultiIT.java b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/smoketest/SmokeTestMultiIT.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..75c4633e632
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/smoke-test-multinode/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/smoketest/SmokeTestMultiIT.java
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch 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.smoketest;
+
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.Name;
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.ParametersFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ESRestTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.RestTestCandidate;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.parser.RestTestParseException;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+public class SmokeTestMultiIT extends ESRestTestCase {
+
+    public SmokeTestMultiIT(@Name("yaml") RestTestCandidate testCandidate) {
+        super(testCandidate);
+    }
+
+    @ParametersFactory
+    public static Iterable<Object[]> parameters() throws IOException, RestTestParseException {
+        return ESRestTestCase.createParameters(0, 1);
+    }
+}
+