diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
index 385607d89ba..e3d787779c7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
@@ -173,6 +173,28 @@ public class Lucene {
         return SegmentInfos.readCommit(directory, segmentsFileName);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Tries to acquire the {@link IndexWriter#WRITE_LOCK_NAME} on the given directory. The returned lock must be closed once
+     * the lock is released. If the lock can't be obtained a {@link LockObtainFailedException} is thrown.
+     * This method uses the {@link IndexWriterConfig#getDefaultWriteLockTimeout()} as the lock timeout.
+     */
+    public static Lock acquireWriteLock(Directory directory) throws IOException {
+        return acquireLock(directory, IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME, IndexWriterConfig.getDefaultWriteLockTimeout());
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Tries to acquire a lock on the given directory. The returned lock must be closed once
+     * the lock is released. If the lock can't be obtained a {@link LockObtainFailedException} is thrown.
+     */
+    @SuppressForbidden(reason = "this method uses trappy Directory#makeLock API")
+    public static Lock acquireLock(Directory directory, String lockName, long timeout) throws IOException {
+        final Lock writeLock = directory.makeLock(lockName);
+        if (writeLock.obtain(timeout) == false) {
+            throw new LockObtainFailedException("failed to obtain lock: " + writeLock);
+        }
+        return writeLock;
+    }
+
     /**
      * This method removes all files from the given directory that are not referenced by the given segments file.
      * This method will open an IndexWriter and relies on index file deleter to remove all unreferenced files. Segment files
@@ -184,10 +206,7 @@ public class Lucene {
      */
     public static SegmentInfos pruneUnreferencedFiles(String segmentsFileName, Directory directory) throws IOException {
         final SegmentInfos si = readSegmentInfos(segmentsFileName, directory);
-        try (Lock writeLock = directory.makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME)) {
-            if (!writeLock.obtain(IndexWriterConfig.getDefaultWriteLockTimeout())) { // obtain write lock
-                throw new LockObtainFailedException("Index locked for write: " + writeLock);
-            }
+        try (Lock writeLock = acquireWriteLock(directory)) {
             int foundSegmentFiles = 0;
             for (final String file : directory.listAll()) {
                 /**
@@ -226,10 +245,7 @@ public class Lucene {
      * this operation fails.
      */
     public static void cleanLuceneIndex(Directory directory) throws IOException {
-        try (Lock writeLock = directory.makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME)) {
-            if (!writeLock.obtain(IndexWriterConfig.getDefaultWriteLockTimeout())) { // obtain write lock
-                throw new LockObtainFailedException("Index locked for write: " + writeLock);
-            }
+        try (Lock writeLock = acquireWriteLock(directory)) {
             for (final String file : directory.listAll()) {
                 if (file.startsWith(IndexFileNames.SEGMENTS) || file.equals(IndexFileNames.OLD_SEGMENTS_GEN)) {
                     directory.deleteFile(file); // remove all segment_N files
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/MultiDataPathUpgrader.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/MultiDataPathUpgrader.java
index 1cb700cff60..3425d151c34 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/MultiDataPathUpgrader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/MultiDataPathUpgrader.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.CheckIndex;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Lock;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.LockObtainFailedException;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.SimpleFSDirectory;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.IOUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetaData;
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.io.FileSystemUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.ESLogger;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.Loggers;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.Lucene;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.env.NodeEnvironment;
 import org.elasticsearch.env.ShardLock;
@@ -84,13 +86,12 @@ public class MultiDataPathUpgrader {
         ShardStateMetaData.FORMAT.write(loaded, loaded.version, targetPath.getShardStatePath());
         Files.createDirectories(targetPath.resolveIndex());
         try (SimpleFSDirectory directory = new SimpleFSDirectory(targetPath.resolveIndex())) {
-            try (final Lock lock = directory.makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME)) {
-                if (lock.obtain(5000)) {
-                    upgradeFiles(shard, targetPath, targetPath.resolveIndex(), ShardPath.INDEX_FOLDER_NAME, paths);
-                } else {
-                    throw new IllegalStateException("Can't obtain lock on " + targetPath.resolveIndex());
-                }
+            try (final Lock lock = Lucene.acquireWriteLock(directory)) {
+                upgradeFiles(shard, targetPath, targetPath.resolveIndex(), ShardPath.INDEX_FOLDER_NAME, paths);
+            } catch (LockObtainFailedException ex) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException("Can't obtain lock on " + targetPath.resolveIndex(), ex);
             }
+
         }
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/env/NodeEnvironment.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/env/NodeEnvironment.java
index 26a725f9072..75ef6914eae 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/env/NodeEnvironment.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/env/NodeEnvironment.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractComponent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.FileSystemUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.PathUtils;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.Lucene;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.Index;
@@ -146,18 +147,17 @@ public class NodeEnvironment extends AbstractComponent implements Closeable {
                 
                 try (Directory luceneDir = FSDirectory.open(dir, NativeFSLockFactory.INSTANCE)) {
                     logger.trace("obtaining node lock on {} ...", dir.toAbsolutePath());
-                    Lock tmpLock = luceneDir.makeLock(NODE_LOCK_FILENAME);
-                    boolean obtained = tmpLock.obtain();
-                    if (obtained) {
+                    try {
+                        locks[dirIndex] = Lucene.acquireLock(luceneDir, NODE_LOCK_FILENAME, 0);
                         nodePaths[dirIndex] = new NodePath(dir, environment);
-                        locks[dirIndex] = tmpLock;
                         localNodeId = possibleLockId;
-                    } else {
+                    } catch (LockObtainFailedException ex) {
                         logger.trace("failed to obtain node lock on {}", dir.toAbsolutePath());
                         // release all the ones that were obtained up until now
                         releaseAndNullLocks(locks);
                         break;
                     }
+
                 } catch (IOException e) {
                     logger.trace("failed to obtain node lock on {}", e, dir.toAbsolutePath());
                     lastException = new IOException("failed to obtain lock on " + dir.toAbsolutePath(), e);
@@ -314,8 +314,9 @@ public class NodeEnvironment extends AbstractComponent implements Closeable {
                 // open a directory (will be immediately closed) on the shard's location
                 dirs[i] = new SimpleFSDirectory(p, FsDirectoryService.buildLockFactory(indexSettings));
                 // create a lock for the "write.lock" file
-                locks[i] = dirs[i].makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME);
-                if (locks[i].obtain() == false) {
+                try {
+                    locks[i] = Lucene.acquireWriteLock(dirs[i]);
+                } catch (IOException ex) {
                     throw new ElasticsearchException("unable to acquire " +
                             IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME + " for " + p);
                 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
index c889dd16c20..d92128a319c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
@@ -259,10 +259,7 @@ public class Store extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Closeable, Ref
         metadataLock.writeLock().lock();
         // we make sure that nobody fetches the metadata while we do this rename operation here to ensure we don't
         // get exceptions if files are still open.
-        try (Lock writeLock = directory.makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME)) {
-            if (!writeLock.obtain(IndexWriterConfig.getDefaultWriteLockTimeout())) { // obtain write lock
-                throw new LockObtainFailedException("Index locked for write: " + writeLock);
-            }
+        try (Lock writeLock = Lucene.acquireWriteLock(directory())) {
             for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : entries) {
                 String tempFile = entry.getKey();
                 String origFile = entry.getValue();
@@ -586,10 +583,7 @@ public class Store extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Closeable, Ref
      */
     public void cleanupAndVerify(String reason, MetadataSnapshot sourceMetaData) throws IOException {
         metadataLock.writeLock().lock();
-        try (Lock writeLock = directory.makeLock(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME)) {
-            if (!writeLock.obtain(IndexWriterConfig.getDefaultWriteLockTimeout())) { // obtain write lock
-                throw new LockObtainFailedException("Index locked for write: " + writeLock);
-            }
+        try (Lock writeLock = Lucene.acquireWriteLock(directory)) {
             final StoreDirectory dir = directory;
             for (String existingFile : dir.listAll()) {
                 if (existingFile.equals(IndexWriter.WRITE_LOCK_NAME) || Store.isChecksum(existingFile) || sourceMetaData.contains(existingFile)) {