diff --git a/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/README.md b/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/README.md
index 2dd778d..3bb3615 100644
--- a/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/README.md
+++ b/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 Description:
 ------------
-Copies documents between elasticsearch and file system.
+Copies documents between elasticsearch and file system using the hdfs driver.
 
 Streams:
 --------
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
 
 `mvn clean package`
 
+Note that a different version of hdfs in packaged by excluding org.apache.hadoop.hadoop-hdfs in pom.xml and specifically
+depending on a different preferred version.
+
 Deploy:
 --------
 
diff --git a/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/pom.xml b/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/pom.xml
index 0a81b75..8819319 100644
--- a/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/pom.xml
+++ b/local/elasticsearch-hdfs/pom.xml
@@ -34,8 +34,16 @@
     <properties>
         <elasticsearch.version>1.1.0</elasticsearch.version>
         <lucene.version>4.7.2</lucene.version>
+        <hdfs.version>2.5.0-cdh5.2.4</hdfs.version>
     </properties>
 
+    <repositories>
+        <repository>
+            <id>cloudera</id>
+            <name>cloudera</name>
+            <url>https://repository.cloudera.com/artifactory/cloudera-repos</url>
+        </repository>
+    </repositories>
     <dependencies>
     <!-- Test includes -->
     <dependency>
@@ -111,6 +119,21 @@
                     <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                     <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                 </exclusion>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>hadoop-hdfs</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
+            <artifactId>hadoop-hdfs</artifactId>
+            <version>${hdfs.version}</version>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
             </exclusions>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>