diff --git a/Godeps b/Godeps
index e0372c9d8..aa0d76d34 100644
--- a/Godeps
+++ b/Godeps
@@ -62,5 +62,5 @@ golang.org/x/text a71fd10341b064c10f4a81ceac72bcf70f26ea34
 gopkg.in/dancannon/gorethink.v1 7d1af5be49cb5ecc7b177bf387d232050299d6ef
 gopkg.in/fatih/pool.v2 cba550ebf9bce999a02e963296d4bc7a486cb715
 gopkg.in/mgo.v2 d90005c5262a3463800497ea5a89aed5fe22c886
-gopkg.in/olivere/elastic.v2 4ca0a93672aab0aacb92e0ed205bdf1d3a81f9ed
+gopkg.in/olivere/elastic.v3 1ad75b5396674e9c783400e89106bc0c8da9d786
 gopkg.in/yaml.v2 a83829b6f1293c91addabc89d0571c246397bbf4
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/README.md b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/README.md
index c4e5e4e7e..59effb2a7 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/README.md
+++ b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/README.md
@@ -23,10 +23,12 @@ In this case, dots will be replaced with "_".
   index_name = "test"
   ## ElasticSearch uses a sniffing process to find all nodes of your cluster by default, automatically
   enable_sniffer = false
+  ## Enable health check
+  health_check = false
   ## If index not exists, a template will be created and then the new index.
   ##  You can set number of shards and replicas for this template.
   ## If the index's name uses formats ("myindex%Y%m%d"), the template's name will be the characters before
   ## the first '%' ("myindex").
-  number_of_shards = 5
-  number_of_replicas = 1
+  number_of_shards = 1
+  number_of_replicas = 0
   
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
index 7536f76e0..d6e5ac079 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/outputs"
-	"gopkg.in/olivere/elastic.v2"
+	"gopkg.in/olivere/elastic.v3"
 	"os"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ type Elasticsearch struct {
 	ServerHost       string
 	IndexName        string
 	EnableSniffer    bool
+	HealthCheck      bool
 	NumberOfShards   int
 	NumberOfReplicas int
 	Client           *elastic.Client
@@ -31,8 +32,9 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   # %d - day of month (e.g., 01)
   # %H - hour (00..23)
   enable_sniffer = false
-  number_of_shards = 5
-  number_of_replicas = 1
+  health_check = false
+  number_of_shards = 1
+  number_of_replicas = 0
 `
 
 func (a *Elasticsearch) Connect() error {
@@ -46,7 +48,7 @@ func (a *Elasticsearch) Connect() error {
 	}
 
 	client, err := elastic.NewClient(
-		elastic.SetHealthcheck(true),
+		elastic.SetHealthcheck(a.HealthCheck),
 		elastic.SetSniff(a.EnableSniffer),
 		elastic.SetHealthcheckInterval(30*time.Second),
 		elastic.SetURL(a.ServerHost),
@@ -88,6 +90,14 @@ func (a *Elasticsearch) Connect() error {
 
 	if !exists {
 		// First create a template for the new index
+
+		// The [string] type is removed in 5.0
+		typeHostandUnknow := "text"
+
+		if strings.HasPrefix(a.Version, "2.") {
+			typeHostandUnknow = "string"
+		}
+
 		tmpl := fmt.Sprintf(`{
 			"template":"%s*",
     			"settings" : {
@@ -96,22 +106,25 @@ func (a *Elasticsearch) Connect() error {
     			},
     			"mappings" : {
         			"_default_" : {
+					"_all": {
+        					"enabled": false
+      					},
             				"properties" : {
                 				"created" : { "type" : "date" },
-						"host":{"type":"text","fields":{"keyword":{"type":"keyword","ignore_above":256}}}
+						"host":{"type":"%s"}
             				},
 	    				"dynamic_templates": [
-                			{ "unknow": {
+                			{ "unknowfields": {
                       				"match": "*", 
                       				"match_mapping_type": "unknow",
                       				"mapping": {
-                          				"type":"string"
+                          				"type":"%s"
                       				}
                 			}}
             				]
         			}
     			}
-		}`, templateName, strconv.Itoa(a.NumberOfShards), strconv.Itoa(a.NumberOfShards))
+		}`, templateName, strconv.Itoa(a.NumberOfShards), strconv.Itoa(a.NumberOfReplicas), typeHostandUnknow, typeHostandUnknow)
 
 		_, errCreateTemplate := a.Client.IndexPutTemplate(templateName).BodyString(tmpl).Do()
 
@@ -249,7 +262,10 @@ func (a *Elasticsearch) Close() error {
 func init() {
 	outputs.Add("elasticsearch", func() telegraf.Output {
 		return &Elasticsearch{
-			EnableSniffer: false,
+			EnableSniffer:    false,
+			HealthCheck:      false,
+			NumberOfShards:   1,
+			NumberOfReplicas: 0,
 		}
 	})
 }
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
index bac9c140b..f55c4c07a 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
@@ -2,13 +2,11 @@ package elasticsearch
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
-	"testing"
-	"time"
-
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf"
-
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/testutil"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
 )
 
 func TestConnectAndWrite(t *testing.T) {
@@ -20,9 +18,9 @@ func TestConnectAndWrite(t *testing.T) {
 
 	e := &Elasticsearch{
 		ServerHost:       serverhost,
-		IndexName:        "littletest%Y%m%d",
-		NumberOfShards:   2,
-		NumberOfReplicas: 2,
+		IndexName:        "littletest",
+		NumberOfShards:   1,
+		NumberOfReplicas: 0,
 	}
 
 	// Verify that we can connect to the ElasticSearch