diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
index 4d6b54fa3bbee..8e97ee352ead2 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
@@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ class ClusterFormationTasks {
          * the short name requiring the path to already exist.
          */
         final Object esPluginUtil = "${-> node.binPath().resolve('elasticsearch-plugin').toString()}"
-        final Object[] args = [esPluginUtil, 'install', file]
+        final Object[] args = [esPluginUtil, 'install', '--batch', file]
         return configureExecTask(name, project, setup, node, args)
     }
 
diff --git a/distribution/tools/plugin-cli/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/InstallPluginCommand.java b/distribution/tools/plugin-cli/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/InstallPluginCommand.java
index 84f3764880243..5a14d041c763b 100644
--- a/distribution/tools/plugin-cli/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/InstallPluginCommand.java
+++ b/distribution/tools/plugin-cli/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/InstallPluginCommand.java
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ protected void printAdditionalHelp(Terminal terminal) {
     @Override
     protected void execute(Terminal terminal, OptionSet options, Environment env) throws Exception {
         String pluginId = arguments.value(options);
-        boolean isBatch = options.has(batchOption) || System.console() == null;
+        final boolean isBatch = options.has(batchOption);
         execute(terminal, pluginId, isBatch, env);
     }
 
diff --git a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/tests/module_and_plugin_test_cases.bash b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/tests/module_and_plugin_test_cases.bash
index 190f70e9bad0b..a62d690897e37 100644
--- a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/tests/module_and_plugin_test_cases.bash
+++ b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/tests/module_and_plugin_test_cases.bash
@@ -416,7 +416,7 @@ fi
 
 @test "[$GROUP] install a sample plugin with different logging modes and check output" {
     local relativePath=${1:-$(readlink -m custom-settings-*.zip)}
-    sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install "file://$relativePath" > /tmp/plugin-cli-output
+    sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install --batch "file://$relativePath" > /tmp/plugin-cli-output
     # exclude progress line
     local loglines=$(cat /tmp/plugin-cli-output | grep -v "^[[:cntrl:]]" | wc -l)
     [ "$loglines" -eq "2" ] || {
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ fi
     remove_plugin_example
 
     local relativePath=${1:-$(readlink -m custom-settings-*.zip)}
-    sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Des.logger.level=DEBUG" "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install "file://$relativePath" > /tmp/plugin-cli-output
+    sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER ES_JAVA_OPTS="-Des.logger.level=DEBUG" "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install --batch "file://$relativePath" > /tmp/plugin-cli-output
     local loglines=$(cat /tmp/plugin-cli-output | grep -v "^[[:cntrl:]]" | wc -l)
     [ "$loglines" -gt "2" ] || {
         echo "Expected more than 2 lines excluding progress bar but the output had $loglines lines and was:"
diff --git a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/utils/plugins.bash b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/utils/plugins.bash
index 403d89b30ecad..f9110b3066295 100644
--- a/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/utils/plugins.bash
+++ b/qa/vagrant/src/test/resources/packaging/utils/plugins.bash
@@ -47,9 +47,9 @@ install_plugin() {
     fi
 
     if [ -z "$umask" ]; then
-      sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install -batch "file://$path"
+      sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER "$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin" install --batch "file://$path"
     else
-      sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER bash -c "umask $umask && \"$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin\" install -batch \"file://$path\""
+      sudo -E -u $ESPLUGIN_COMMAND_USER bash -c "umask $umask && \"$ESHOME/bin/elasticsearch-plugin\" install --batch \"file://$path\""
     fi
 
     #check we did not accidentially create a log file as root as /usr/share/elasticsearch