diff --git a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/ElasticSearchTarget.cs b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/ElasticSearchTarget.cs
index 0346d38..89ed1d8 100644
--- a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/ElasticSearchTarget.cs
+++ b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/ElasticSearchTarget.cs
@@ -27,9 +27,10 @@ public class ElasticSearchTarget : TargetWithLayout, IElasticSearchTarget
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets or sets a connection string name to retrieve the Uri from.
-        /// 
+        ///
         /// Use as an alternative to Uri
         /// </summary>
+        [Obsolete("Deprecated. Please use the configsetting layout renderer instead.", true)]
         public string ConnectionStringName { get; set; }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -106,10 +107,10 @@ public class ElasticSearchTarget : TargetWithLayout, IElasticSearchTarget
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets or sets if exceptions will be rethrown.
-        /// 
+        ///
         /// Set it to true if ElasticSearchTarget target is used within FallbackGroup target (https://github.com/NLog/NLog/wiki/FallbackGroup-target).
         /// </summary>
-        [Obsolete("No longer needed")]
+        [Obsolete("No longer needed", true)]
         public bool ThrowExceptions { get; set; }
 
         public ElasticSearchTarget()
@@ -122,7 +123,7 @@ protected override void InitializeTarget()
         {
             base.InitializeTarget();
 
-            var uri = ConnectionStringName.GetConnectionString() ?? (_uri?.Render(LogEventInfo.CreateNullEvent())) ?? string.Empty;
+            var uri = _uri?.Render(LogEventInfo.CreateNullEvent()) ?? string.Empty;
             var nodes = uri.Split(new[] { ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Select(url => new Uri(url));
             var connectionPool = new StaticConnectionPool(nodes);
 
diff --git a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch.csproj b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch.csproj
index 03921e0..a35ecdc 100644
--- a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch.csproj
+++ b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch.csproj
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
     <PackageReference Include="Elasticsearch.Net" Version="7.0.0-alpha2" />
     <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="12.0.1" />
     <PackageReference Include="NLog" Version="4.6.4" />
-    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json" Version="2.2.0" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
 </Project>
diff --git a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/StringExtensions.cs b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/StringExtensions.cs
index eb8bf77..71cae74 100644
--- a/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/StringExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch/StringExtensions.cs
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 using System.Dynamic;
 using System.Globalization;
 using Newtonsoft.Json;
-using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
 using System.IO;
 
 namespace NLog.Targets.ElasticSearch
@@ -35,23 +34,5 @@ public static object ToSystemType(this string field, Type type, IFormatProvider
                     return field;
             }
         }
-
-        public static string GetConnectionString(this string name)
-        {
-            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
-                return null;
-
-            var value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(name);
-            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
-                return value;
-
-            var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
-                .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
-                .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", true, reloadOnChange: false);  // CreateFileWatcher not supported on all platforms, and not needed
-
-            var configuration = builder.Build();
-
-            return configuration.GetConnectionString(name);
-        }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file