diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
index 9b137070cb8cd..c5bfa9224900a 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import com.carrotsearch.hppc.cursors.ObjectObjectCursor;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.message.ParameterizedMessage;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterChangedEvent;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterName;
@@ -235,8 +236,8 @@ public void setCurrentTerm(long currentTerm) {
         try {
             innerSetCurrentTerm(currentTerm);
         } catch (WriteStateException e) {
-            logger.warn("Exception occurred when setting current term", e);
-            //TODO re-throw exception
+            logger.error(new ParameterizedMessage("Failed to set current term to {}", currentTerm), e);
+            e.rethrowAsErrorOrUncheckedException();
         }
     }
 
@@ -253,8 +254,8 @@ public void setLastAcceptedState(ClusterState clusterState) {
             incrementalWrite = previousClusterState.term() == clusterState.term();
             updateClusterState(clusterState, previousClusterState);
         } catch (WriteStateException e) {
-            logger.warn("Exception occurred when setting last accepted state", e);
-            //TODO re-throw exception
+            logger.error(new ParameterizedMessage("Failed to set last accepted state with version {}", clusterState.version()), e);
+            e.rethrowAsErrorOrUncheckedException();
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateException.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateException.java
index aeb9bffc6711d..29699be2c16a0 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateException.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateException.java
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.gateway;
 
+import java.io.IOError;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
 
 /**
  * This exception is thrown when there is a problem of writing state to disk.
@@ -38,4 +40,16 @@ public class WriteStateException extends IOException {
     public boolean isDirty() {
         return dirty;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Rethrows this {@link WriteStateException} as {@link IOError} if dirty flag is set, which will lead to JVM shutdown.
+     * If dirty flag is not set, this exception is wrapped into {@link UncheckedIOException}.
+     */
+    public void rethrowAsErrorOrUncheckedException() {
+        if (isDirty()) {
+            throw new IOError(this);
+        } else {
+            throw new UncheckedIOException(this);
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateExceptionTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateExceptionTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..cc6a7950d8920
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/WriteStateExceptionTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.gateway;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+
+import java.io.IOError;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
+
+public class WriteStateExceptionTests extends ESTestCase {
+
+    public void testDirtyFlag() {
+        boolean dirty = randomBoolean();
+        WriteStateException ex = new WriteStateException(dirty, "test", null);
+        assertThat(ex.isDirty(), equalTo(dirty));
+    }
+
+    public void testNonDirtyRethrow() {
+        WriteStateException ex = new WriteStateException(false, "test", null);
+        UncheckedIOException ex2 = expectThrows(UncheckedIOException.class, () -> ex.rethrowAsErrorOrUncheckedException());
+        assertThat(ex2.getCause(), instanceOf(WriteStateException.class));
+    }
+
+    public void testDirtyRethrow() {
+        WriteStateException ex = new WriteStateException(true, "test", null);
+        IOError err = expectThrows(IOError.class, () -> ex.rethrowAsErrorOrUncheckedException());
+        assertThat(err.getCause(), instanceOf(WriteStateException.class));
+    }
+}