diff --git a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/deployer/manifest/tester.yaml.template b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/deployer/manifest/tester.yaml.template
index 86d6bfe7ca..6fad6599d2 100644
--- a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/deployer/manifest/tester.yaml.template
+++ b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/deployer/manifest/tester.yaml.template
@@ -26,5 +26,7 @@ spec:
         fieldRef:
           fieldPath: metadata.namespace
     - name: APP_INSTANCE_NAME
-      value: ${APP_INSTANCE_NAME}
+      value: "${APP_INSTANCE_NAME}"
+    - name: REPLICAS
+      value: "${REPLICAS}"
   restartPolicy: Never
diff --git a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/Dockerfile b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/Dockerfile
index 960bcff7f9..50d8c1871f 100644
--- a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/Dockerfile
+++ b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/Dockerfile
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     jq \
     uuid-runtime \
     wget \
+    curl \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 RUN wget -q -O /bin/kubectl \
diff --git a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tester.sh b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tester.sh
index ddccd4cf33..cb73886e0f 100755
--- a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tester.sh
+++ b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tester.sh
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@
 set -xeo pipefail
 shopt -s nullglob
 
+export ELASTIC_URL="http://${APP_INSTANCE_NAME}-elasticsearch-svc:9200"
+export HEALTH_URL="${ELASTIC_URL}/_cluster/health"
+
 for test in /tests/*; do
   testrunner -logtostderr "--test_spec=${test}"
 done
diff --git a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tests/basic-suite.yaml b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tests/basic-suite.yaml
index cdf72f4ca3..615bff02f7 100644
--- a/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tests/basic-suite.yaml
+++ b/k8s/elasticsearch/apptest/tester/tests/basic-suite.yaml
@@ -1,8 +1,72 @@
 actions:
-- name: dummy test
+
+- name: Wait until Elasticsearch is ready
   bashTest:
     script: |-
-      exit 0
+      for ((pod=0; pod<${REPLICAS}; pod++)); do
+        kubectl wait pod/${APP_INSTANCE_NAME}-elasticsearch-${pod} \
+          --namespace=${NAMESPACE} \
+          --for=condition=Ready \
+          --timeout=180s
+      done
     expect:
       exitCode:
         equals: 0
+
+- name: All nodes are connected to the cluster
+  bashTest:
+    script: |-
+      nodes="$(curl -XGET "${HEALTH_URL}?wait_for_nodes=${REPLICAS}&timeout=300s" | jq '.number_of_nodes')"
+      if [[ "${nodes}" -eq "${REPLICAS}" ]]; then
+        echo 'OK - all nodes found'
+      else
+        echo "FAIL - found nodes: ${nodes}"
+      fi
+    expect:
+      stdout:
+        equals: 'OK - all nodes found'
+
+- name: Cluster reports green status
+  bashTest:
+    script: |-
+      curl -XGET "${HEALTH_URL}?wait_for_status=green&timeout=300s" | jq -r '.status'
+    expect:
+      stdout:
+        equals: 'green'
+
+- name: New document can be saved
+  bashTest:
+    script: |-
+      curl -s -f -X PUT -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{
+        "name": "John",
+        "surname": "Smith"
+      }' "${ELASTIC_URL}/employees/person/1" | jq -r '.result'
+    expect:
+      exitCode:
+        equals: 0
+      stdout:
+        equals: 'created'
+
+- name: Document can be updated
+  bashTest:
+    script: |-
+      curl -s -f -X POST -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{
+        "doc": {
+          "lastname": "Jones"
+        }
+      }' "${ELASTIC_URL}/employees/person/1/_update" | jq -r '.result'
+    expect:
+      exitCode:
+        equals: 0
+      stdout:
+        equals: 'updated'
+
+- name: Existing document can be found
+  bashTest:
+    script: |-
+      # Wait to allow the object to be propagated between all nodes
+      sleep 5
+      curl -s -f "${ELASTIC_URL}/_search?q=name:John" | jq -r '.hits.hits[]._source.lastname'
+    expect:
+      stdout:
+        equals: 'Jones'
diff --git a/k8s/elasticsearch/deployer/Dockerfile b/k8s/elasticsearch/deployer/Dockerfile
index d4ca281276..d6d45b24ea 100644
--- a/k8s/elasticsearch/deployer/Dockerfile
+++ b/k8s/elasticsearch/deployer/Dockerfile
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ COPY apptest/deployer /data-test/
 # Provide registry prefix and tag for default values for images.
 ARG REGISTRY
 ARG TAG
+
+ENV WAIT_FOR_READY_TIMEOUT 600
+ENV TESTER_TIMEOUT 600
+
 RUN cat /data/schema.yaml \
     | env -i "REGISTRY=$REGISTRY" "TAG=$TAG" envsubst \
     > /data/schema.yaml.new \