diff --git a/cmd/elastic.sh b/cmd/elastic.sh
index 33bdb12..2fa59c2 100644
--- a/cmd/elastic.sh
+++ b/cmd/elastic.sh
@@ -21,11 +21,22 @@ register 'elastic' 'status' 'HTTP status code of the elasticsearch service' elas
 
 function elastic_wait(){
   echo 'waiting for elasticsearch service to come up';
-  until test $(elastic_status) -eq 200; do
-    printf '.'
+  retry_count=30
+
+  i=1
+  while [[ "$i" -le "$retry_count" ]]; do
+    if [[ $(elastic_status) -eq 200 ]]; then
+      echo
+      exit 0
+    fi
     sleep 2
+    printf "."
+    i=$(($i + 1))
   done
+
   echo
+  echo "Elasticsearch did not come up, check configuration"
+  exit 1
 }
 
 register 'elastic' 'wait' 'wait for elasticsearch to start up' elastic_wait