diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/UpgradeClusterClientYamlTestSuiteIT.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/UpgradeClusterClientYamlTestSuiteIT.java
index 34c27454ec54f..2977e783cf60d 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/UpgradeClusterClientYamlTestSuiteIT.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/UpgradeClusterClientYamlTestSuiteIT.java
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.ParametersFactory;
 import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.TimeoutSuite;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.TimeUnits;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ESRestTestCase;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.yaml.ClientYamlTestCandidate;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.yaml.ESClientYamlSuiteTestCase;
 
@@ -46,5 +48,14 @@ public UpgradeClusterClientYamlTestSuiteIT(ClientYamlTestCandidate testCandidate
     public static Iterable<Object[]> parameters() throws Exception {
         return createParameters();
     }
+
+    @Override
+    protected Settings restClientSettings() {
+        return Settings.builder().put(super.restClientSettings())
+            // increase the timeout so that we can actually see the result of failed cluster health
+            // calls that have a default timeout of 30s
+            .put(ESRestTestCase.CLIENT_RETRY_TIMEOUT, "40s")
+            .build();
+    }
 }
 
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/rest/ESRestTestCase.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/rest/ESRestTestCase.java
index a2d6f3bea5cc4..ce10c6315067b 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/rest/ESRestTestCase.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/rest/ESRestTestCase.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.client.RestClientBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.PathUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ThreadContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
@@ -67,6 +68,7 @@
 public abstract class ESRestTestCase extends ESTestCase {
     public static final String TRUSTSTORE_PATH = "truststore.path";
     public static final String TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD = "truststore.password";
+    public static final String CLIENT_RETRY_TIMEOUT = "client.retry.timeout";
 
     /**
      * Convert the entity from a {@link Response} into a map of maps.
@@ -338,6 +340,12 @@ protected RestClient buildClient(Settings settings, HttpHost[] hosts) throws IOE
             }
             builder.setDefaultHeaders(defaultHeaders);
         }
+
+        final String requestTimeoutString = settings.get(CLIENT_RETRY_TIMEOUT);
+        if (requestTimeoutString != null) {
+            final TimeValue maxRetryTimeout = TimeValue.parseTimeValue(requestTimeoutString, CLIENT_RETRY_TIMEOUT);
+            builder.setMaxRetryTimeoutMillis(Math.toIntExact(maxRetryTimeout.getMillis()));
+        }
         return builder.build();
     }