diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/alerts/NoMasterNodeTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/alerts/NoMasterNodeTests.java
index 566d7432a2a..2443432bdf8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/alerts/NoMasterNodeTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/alerts/NoMasterNodeTests.java
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ public class NoMasterNodeTests extends AbstractAlertingTests {
                     .setAlertSource(alertSource)
                     .get();
         }
+        ensureGreen();
 
         for (int i = 1; i <= numberOfFailures; i++) {
             logger.info("Failure round {}", i);