diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexer.java b/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexer.java
index 1711c0e34eb1e..c7d29451ab3be 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexer.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexer.java
@@ -425,7 +425,8 @@ private QueryBuilder createBoundaryQuery(Map<String, Object> position) {
         assert lowerBound <= maxBoundary;
         final RangeQueryBuilder query = new RangeQueryBuilder(fieldName)
                 .gte(lowerBound)
-                .lt(maxBoundary);
+                .lt(maxBoundary)
+                .format("epoch_millis");
         return query;
     }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexerIndexingTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexerIndexingTests.java
index bf4f4892ef627..f658fa574eb99 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexerIndexingTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/rollup/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/rollup/job/RollupIndexerIndexingTests.java
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponseSections;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.ShardSearchFailure;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.joda.DateMathParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.joda.Joda;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.rounding.Rounding;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
@@ -506,6 +508,7 @@ private void executeTestCase(List<Map<String, Object>> docs, RollupJobConfig con
     private Map<String, MappedFieldType> createFieldTypes(RollupJobConfig job) {
         Map<String, MappedFieldType> fieldTypes = new HashMap<>();
         MappedFieldType fieldType = new DateFieldMapper.Builder(job.getGroupConfig().getDateHisto().getField())
+                .dateTimeFormatter(Joda.forPattern(randomFrom("basic_date", "date_optional_time", "epoch_second")))
                 .build(new Mapper.BuilderContext(settings.getSettings(), new ContentPath(0)))
                 .fieldType();
         fieldTypes.put(fieldType.name(), fieldType);
@@ -618,7 +621,7 @@ protected void doNextSearch(SearchRequest request, ActionListener<SearchResponse
             RangeQueryBuilder range = (RangeQueryBuilder) request.source().query();
             final DateTimeZone timeZone = range.timeZone() != null ? DateTimeZone.forID(range.timeZone()) : null;
             Query query = timestampField.rangeQuery(range.from(), range.to(), range.includeLower(), range.includeUpper(),
-                    null, timeZone, null, queryShardContext);
+                    null, timeZone, new DateMathParser(Joda.forPattern(range.format())), queryShardContext);
 
             // extract composite agg
             assertThat(request.source().aggregations().getAggregatorFactories().size(), equalTo(1));
diff --git a/x-pack/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/multi_node/RollupIT.java b/x-pack/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/multi_node/RollupIT.java
index b0142ae141853..43ad4dc0a45a2 100644
--- a/x-pack/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/multi_node/RollupIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/multi_node/RollupIT.java
@@ -6,12 +6,16 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.multi_node;
 
 import org.apache.http.HttpStatus;
+import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
+import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
 import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Request;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Response;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SecureString;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ThreadContext;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.XContentMapValues;
@@ -33,8 +37,8 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
+import static org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory.jsonBuilder;
 import static org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.security.authc.support.UsernamePasswordToken.basicAuthHeaderValue;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.isOneOf;
@@ -73,6 +77,31 @@ public void clearRollupMetadata() throws Exception {
 
     public void testBigRollup() throws Exception {
         final int numDocs = 200;
+        String dateFormat = "strict_date_optional_time";
+
+        // create the test-index index
+        try (XContentBuilder builder = jsonBuilder()) {
+            builder.startObject();
+            {
+                builder.startObject("mappings").startObject("_doc")
+                    .startObject("properties")
+                    .startObject("timestamp")
+                    .field("type", "date")
+                    .field("format", dateFormat)
+                    .endObject()
+                    .startObject("value")
+                    .field("type", "integer")
+                    .endObject()
+                    .endObject()
+                    .endObject().endObject();
+            }
+            builder.endObject();
+            final StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(Strings.toString(builder), ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON);
+            Request req = new Request("PUT", "rollup-docs");
+            req.setEntity(entity);
+            client().performRequest(req);
+        }
+
 
         // index documents for the rollup job
         final StringBuilder bulk = new StringBuilder();
@@ -88,13 +117,15 @@ public void testBigRollup() throws Exception {
         bulkRequest.addParameter("refresh", "true");
         bulkRequest.setJsonEntity(bulk.toString());
         client().performRequest(bulkRequest);
+
         // create the rollup job
         final Request createRollupJobRequest = new Request("PUT", "/_xpack/rollup/job/rollup-job-test");
+        int pageSize = randomIntBetween(2, 50);
         createRollupJobRequest.setJsonEntity("{"
             + "\"index_pattern\":\"rollup-*\","
             + "\"rollup_index\":\"results-rollup\","
-            + "\"cron\":\"*/1 * * * * ?\","             // fast cron and big page size so test runs quickly
-            + "\"page_size\":20,"
+            + "\"cron\":\"*/1 * * * * ?\","             // fast cron so test runs quickly
+            + "\"page_size\":" + pageSize + ","
             + "\"groups\":{"
             + "    \"date_histogram\":{"
             + "        \"field\":\"timestamp\","
@@ -142,7 +173,8 @@ public void testBigRollup() throws Exception {
             "    \"date_histo\": {\n" +
             "      \"date_histogram\": {\n" +
             "        \"field\": \"timestamp\",\n" +
-            "        \"interval\": \"1h\"\n" +
+            "        \"interval\": \"1h\",\n" +
+            "        \"format\": \"date_time\"\n" +
             "      },\n" +
             "      \"aggs\": {\n" +
             "        \"the_max\": {\n" +
@@ -226,7 +258,7 @@ private void assertRollUpJob(final String rollupJob) throws Exception {
 
     }
 
-    private void waitForRollUpJob(final String rollupJob,String[] expectedStates) throws Exception {
+    private void waitForRollUpJob(final String rollupJob, String[] expectedStates) throws Exception {
         assertBusy(() -> {
             final Request getRollupJobRequest = new Request("GET", "_xpack/rollup/job/" + rollupJob);
             Response getRollupJobResponse = client().performRequest(getRollupJobRequest);
@@ -317,10 +349,4 @@ private void deleteAllJobs() throws Exception {
             }
         }
     }
-
-    private static String responseEntityToString(Response response) throws Exception {
-        try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
-            return reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));
-        }
-    }
 }