diff --git a/qa/die-with-dignity/build.gradle b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/build.gradle
similarity index 86%
rename from qa/die-with-dignity/build.gradle
rename to test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/build.gradle
index cd7f2b9f738cc..166a9ca6d138e 100644
--- a/qa/die-with-dignity/build.gradle
+++ b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/build.gradle
@@ -20,15 +20,17 @@ tasks.named("javaRestTest").configure {
 }
 
 testClusters.matching { it.name == "javaRestTest" }.configureEach {
-  systemProperty "die.with.dignity.test", "whatever"
-  setting 'xpack.security.enabled', 'true'
-  user username: 'admin', password: 'admin-password', role: 'superuser'
+  systemProperty "die.with.dignity.test", "true"
 }
 
 tasks.named("test").configure {
   enabled = false
 }
 
+tasks.named("yamlRestTest").configure {
+  enabled = false
+}
+
 tasks.named('splitPackagesAudit').configure {
   // these should be moved to an actual package, not the root package
   ignoreClasses 'org.elasticsearch.DieWithDignityPlugin',
diff --git a/qa/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java
similarity index 81%
rename from qa/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java
rename to test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java
index dc6deac379117..2fa35e10c2cf6 100644
--- a/qa/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java
+++ b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/qa/die_with_dignity/DieWithDignityIT.java
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@
 
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Request;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.PathUtils;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SecureString;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ThreadContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ESRestTestCase;
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
@@ -30,6 +27,24 @@
 public class DieWithDignityIT extends ESRestTestCase {
 
     public void testDieWithDignity() throws Exception {
+        // there should be an Elasticsearch process running with the die.with.dignity.test system property
+        {
+            final String jpsPath = PathUtils.get(System.getProperty("runtime.java.home"), "bin/jps").toString();
+            final Process process = new ProcessBuilder().command(jpsPath, "-v").start();
+
+            boolean found = false;
+            try (InputStream is = process.getInputStream(); BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"))) {
+                String line;
+                while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
+                    if (line.contains("-Ddie.with.dignity.test=true")) {
+                        found = true;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+            assertTrue(found);
+        }
+
         expectThrows(IOException.class, () -> client().performRequest(new Request("GET", "/_die_with_dignity")));
 
         // the Elasticsearch process should die and disappear from the output of jps
@@ -40,7 +55,7 @@ public void testDieWithDignity() throws Exception {
             try (InputStream is = process.getInputStream(); BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"))) {
                 String line;
                 while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
-                    assertThat(line, line, not(containsString("-Ddie.with.dignity.test")));
+                    assertThat(line, line, not(containsString("-Ddie.with.dignity.test=true")));
                 }
             }
         });
@@ -99,16 +114,4 @@ protected boolean preserveClusterUponCompletion() {
         return true;
     }
 
-    @Override
-    protected final Settings restClientSettings() {
-        String token = basicAuthHeaderValue("admin", new SecureString("admin-password".toCharArray()));
-        return Settings.builder()
-            .put(super.restClientSettings())
-            .put(ThreadContext.PREFIX + ".Authorization", token)
-            // increase the timeout here to 90 seconds to handle long waits for a green
-            // cluster health. the waits for green need to be longer than a minute to
-            // account for delayed shards
-            .put(ESRestTestCase.CLIENT_SOCKET_TIMEOUT, "1s")
-            .build();
-    }
 }
diff --git a/qa/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java
similarity index 90%
rename from qa/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java
rename to test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java
index 9c6a8fe95182e..c17369928a4d1 100644
--- a/qa/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java
+++ b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/DieWithDignityPlugin.java
@@ -25,10 +25,6 @@
 
 public class DieWithDignityPlugin extends Plugin implements ActionPlugin {
 
-    public DieWithDignityPlugin() {
-        assert System.getProperty("die.with.dignity.test") != null : "test should pass the `die.with.dignity.test` property";
-    }
-
     @Override
     public List<RestHandler> getRestHandlers(
         final Settings settings,
diff --git a/qa/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/RestDieWithDignityAction.java b/test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/RestDieWithDignityAction.java
similarity index 100%
rename from qa/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/RestDieWithDignityAction.java
rename to test/external-modules/die-with-dignity/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/RestDieWithDignityAction.java