diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/rest/FsSearchableSnapshotsIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/rest/FsSearchableSnapshotsIT.java
index a3efec0c8f2f3..e65db96a400d9 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/rest/FsSearchableSnapshotsIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/rest/FsSearchableSnapshotsIT.java
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.searchablesnapshots.rest;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeUnit;
 import org.elasticsearch.repositories.fs.FsRepository;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.searchablesnapshots.AbstractSearchableSnapshotsRestTestCase;
 
@@ -19,14 +18,6 @@ protected String repositoryType() {
 
     @Override
     protected Settings repositorySettings() {
-        final Settings.Builder settings = Settings.builder();
-        settings.put("location", System.getProperty("tests.path.repo"));
-        if (randomBoolean()) {
-            settings.put("compress", randomBoolean());
-        }
-        if (randomBoolean()) {
-            settings.put("chunk_size", randomIntBetween(100, 1000), ByteSizeUnit.BYTES);
-        }
-        return settings.build();
+        return Settings.builder().put("location", System.getProperty("tests.path.repo")).build();
     }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/AbstractSearchableSnapshotsRestTestCase.java b/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/AbstractSearchableSnapshotsRestTestCase.java
index c7dd28a1e6bdb..00ac39c0773fe 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/AbstractSearchableSnapshotsRestTestCase.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/searchable-snapshots/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/searchablesnapshots/AbstractSearchableSnapshotsRestTestCase.java
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ private void runSearchableSnapshotsTest(SearchableSnapshotsTestCaseBody testCase
         );
         ensureGreen(indexName);
 
-        final int numDocs = randomIntBetween(1, 10_000);
+        final int numDocs = randomIntBetween(1, 500);
         logger.info("indexing [{}] documents", numDocs);
 
         final StringBuilder bulkBody = new StringBuilder();
@@ -255,11 +255,7 @@ protected static void registerRepository(String repository, String type, boolean
         request.setJsonEntity(Strings.toString(new PutRepositoryRequest(repository).type(type).verify(verify).settings(settings)));
 
         final Response response = client().performRequest(request);
-        assertThat(
-            "Failed to create repository [" + repository + "] of type [" + type + "]: " + response,
-            response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode(),
-            equalTo(RestStatus.OK.getStatus())
-        );
+        assertAcked("Failed to create repository [" + repository + "] of type [" + type + "]: " + response, response);
     }
 
     protected static void createSnapshot(String repository, String snapshot, boolean waitForCompletion) throws IOException {
@@ -278,11 +274,7 @@ protected static void deleteSnapshot(String repository, String snapshot, boolean
         final Request request = new Request(HttpDelete.METHOD_NAME, "_snapshot/" + repository + '/' + snapshot);
         try {
             final Response response = client().performRequest(request);
-            assertThat(
-                "Failed to delete snapshot [" + snapshot + "] in repository [" + repository + "]: " + response,
-                response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode(),
-                equalTo(RestStatus.OK.getStatus())
-            );
+            assertAcked("Failed to delete snapshot [" + snapshot + "] in repository [" + repository + "]: " + response, response);
         } catch (IOException e) {
             if (ignoreMissing && e instanceof ResponseException) {
                 Response response = ((ResponseException) e).getResponse();
@@ -324,6 +316,22 @@ protected static void mountSnapshot(
         );
     }
 
+    protected static void deleteIndex(String index) throws IOException {
+        final Response response = client().performRequest(new Request("DELETE", "/" + index));
+        assertAcked("Fail to delete index [" + index + ']', response);
+    }
+
+    private static void assertAcked(String message, Response response) throws IOException {
+        final int responseStatusCode = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
+        assertThat(
+            message + ": expecting response code [200] but got [" + responseStatusCode + ']',
+            responseStatusCode,
+            equalTo(RestStatus.OK.getStatus())
+        );
+        final Map<String, Object> responseAsMap = responseAsMap(response);
+        assertThat(message + ": response is not acknowledged", extractValue(responseAsMap, "acknowledged"), equalTo(Boolean.TRUE));
+    }
+
     protected static void forceMerge(String index, boolean onlyExpungeDeletes, boolean flush) throws IOException {
         final Request request = new Request(HttpPost.METHOD_NAME, '/' + index + "/_forcemerge");
         request.addParameter("only_expunge_deletes", Boolean.toString(onlyExpungeDeletes));