diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/snapshots/SharedClusterSnapshotRestoreIT.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/snapshots/SharedClusterSnapshotRestoreIT.java
index 944917719b673..624e1f5c7c086 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/snapshots/SharedClusterSnapshotRestoreIT.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/snapshots/SharedClusterSnapshotRestoreIT.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.snapshots;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.util.SetOnce;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionFuture;
@@ -768,7 +769,7 @@ public void testIncludeGlobalState() throws Exception {
 
     }
 
-    public void testSnapshotFileFailureDuringSnapshot() throws Exception {
+    public void testSnapshotFileFailureDuringSnapshot() {
         Client client = client();
 
         logger.info("-->  creating repository");
@@ -817,8 +818,12 @@ public void testSnapshotFileFailureDuringSnapshot() throws Exception {
         } catch (Exception ex) {
             logger.info("--> caught a top level exception, asserting what's expected", ex);
             assertThat(getFailureCount("test-repo"), greaterThan(0L));
-            assertThat(ex.getCause(), notNullValue());
-            assertThat(ex.getCause().getMessage(), containsString("Random IOException"));
+
+            final Throwable cause = ex.getCause();
+            assertThat(cause, notNullValue());
+            final Throwable rootCause = new ElasticsearchException(cause).getRootCause();
+            assertThat(rootCause, notNullValue());
+            assertThat(rootCause.getMessage(), containsString("Random IOException"));
         }
     }