diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/CcrRestIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/CcrRestIT.java
index 45998433d33a6..b0225fc5bf97e 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/CcrRestIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/CcrRestIT.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ThreadContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.yaml.ClientYamlTestCandidate;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.yaml.ESClientYamlSuiteTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ccr.action.ShardChangesAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.test.rest.XPackRestTestHelper;
 import org.junit.After;
 
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ protected Settings restClientSettings() {
 
     @After
     public void cleanup() throws Exception {
-        XPackRestTestHelper.waitForPendingTasks(adminClient());
+        XPackRestTestHelper.waitForPendingTasks(adminClient(), taskName -> taskName.startsWith(ShardChangesAction.NAME));
     }
 
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/test/rest/XPackRestTestHelper.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/test/rest/XPackRestTestHelper.java
index 5e9fd4a386b64..da2002fd4b564 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/test/rest/XPackRestTestHelper.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/test/rest/XPackRestTestHelper.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Response;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.ResponseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedRunnable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
@@ -29,7 +30,9 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
+import java.util.function.Predicate;
 
+import static org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase.assertBusy;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 
 public final class XPackRestTestHelper {
@@ -84,34 +87,54 @@ public static void waitForMlTemplates(RestClient client) throws InterruptedExcep
     }
 
     /**
-     * Waits for pending tasks to complete
+     * Wait for outstanding tasks to complete. The specified admin client is used to check the outstanding tasks and this is done using
+     * {@link ESTestCase#assertBusy(CheckedRunnable)} to give a chance to any outstanding tasks to complete.
+     *
+     * @param adminClient the admin client
+     * @throws Exception if an exception is thrown while checking the outstanding tasks
      */
-    public static void waitForPendingTasks(RestClient adminClient) throws Exception {
-        ESTestCase.assertBusy(() -> {
+    public static void waitForPendingTasks(final RestClient adminClient) throws Exception {
+        waitForPendingTasks(adminClient, taskName -> false);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Wait for outstanding tasks to complete. The specified admin client is used to check the outstanding tasks and this is done using
+     * {@link ESTestCase#assertBusy(CheckedRunnable)} to give a chance to any outstanding tasks to complete. The specified filter is used
+     * to filter out outstanding tasks that are expected to be there.
+     *
+     * @param adminClient the admin client
+     * @param taskFilter  predicate used to filter tasks that are expected to be there
+     * @throws Exception if an exception is thrown while checking the outstanding tasks
+     */
+    public static void waitForPendingTasks(final RestClient adminClient, final Predicate<String> taskFilter) throws Exception {
+        assertBusy(() -> {
             try {
-                Request request = new Request("GET", "/_cat/tasks");
+                final Request request = new Request("GET", "/_cat/tasks");
                 request.addParameter("detailed", "true");
-                Response response = adminClient.performRequest(request);
-                // Check to see if there are tasks still active. We exclude the
-                // list tasks
-                // actions tasks form this otherwise we will always fail
+                final Response response = adminClient.performRequest(request);
+                /*
+                 * Check to see if there are outstanding tasks; we exclude the list task itself, and any expected outstanding tasks using
+                 * the specified task filter.
+                 */
                 if (response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
                     try (BufferedReader responseReader = new BufferedReader(
                             new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
                         int activeTasks = 0;
                         String line;
-                        StringBuilder tasksListString = new StringBuilder();
+                        final StringBuilder tasksListString = new StringBuilder();
                         while ((line = responseReader.readLine()) != null) {
-                            if (line.startsWith(ListTasksAction.NAME) == false) {
-                                activeTasks++;
-                                tasksListString.append(line);
-                                tasksListString.append('\n');
+                            final String taskName = line.split("\\s+")[0];
+                            if (taskName.startsWith(ListTasksAction.NAME) || taskFilter.test(taskName)) {
+                                continue;
                             }
+                            activeTasks++;
+                            tasksListString.append(line);
+                            tasksListString.append('\n');
                         }
                         assertEquals(activeTasks + " active tasks found:\n" + tasksListString, 0, activeTasks);
                     }
                 }
-            } catch (IOException e) {
+            } catch (final IOException e) {
                 throw new AssertionError("Error getting active tasks list", e);
             }
         });