diff --git a/docs/reference/modules/remote-clusters.asciidoc b/docs/reference/modules/remote-clusters.asciidoc
index c6bfb16c797b3..efbff16d0b85e 100644
--- a/docs/reference/modules/remote-clusters.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/modules/remote-clusters.asciidoc
@@ -247,14 +247,6 @@ PUT _cluster/settings
   Elasticsearch compresses the response. If unset, the global
   `transport.compress` is used as the fallback setting.
 
-`cluster.remote.${cluster_alias}.proxy`::
-
-  Sets a proxy address for the specified remote cluster. By default this is not
-  set, meaning that Elasticsearch will connect directly to the nodes in the
-  remote cluster using their <<advanced-network-settings,publish addresses>>.
-  If this setting is set to an IP address or hostname then Elasticsearch will
-  connect to the nodes in the remote cluster using this address instead.
-
 [float]
 [[retrieve-remote-clusters-info]]
 === Retrieving remote clusters info
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/RemoteClusterAware.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/RemoteClusterAware.java
index 9fb1a84b84922..78bbf9775cc30 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/RemoteClusterAware.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/RemoteClusterAware.java
@@ -143,7 +143,10 @@ public String getKey(final String key) {
     };
 
     /**
-     * A proxy address for the remote cluster.
+     * A proxy address for the remote cluster. By default this is not set, meaning that Elasticsearch will connect directly to the nodes in
+     * the remote cluster using their publish addresses. If this setting is set to an IP address or hostname then Elasticsearch will connect
+     * to the nodes in the remote cluster using this address instead. Use of this setting is not recommended and it is deliberately
+     * undocumented as it does not work well with all proxies.
      */
     public static final Setting.AffixSetting<String> REMOTE_CLUSTERS_PROXY = Setting.affixKeySetting(
             "cluster.remote.",