diff --git a/qa/Rakefile b/qa/Rakefile
index 6af05e9a667..479d49effec 100644
--- a/qa/Rakefile
+++ b/qa/Rakefile
@@ -20,9 +20,6 @@ require "rspec/core/runner"
 require "rspec/core/rake_task"
 require "stud/try"
 
-task :spec    => 'spec:all'
-task :default => :spec
-
 namespace :qa do
   namespace :acceptance do
     desc "Run all acceptance tests"
diff --git a/rakelib/docs.rake b/rakelib/docs.rake
deleted file mode 100644
index 8971f30c2ca..00000000000
--- a/rakelib/docs.rake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-# Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
-# license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-# this work for additional information regarding copyright
-# ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
-# the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-# not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
-# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
-# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
-# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
-# specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-require "fileutils"
-
-DEFAULT_DOC_DIRECTORY = ::File.join(::File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "build", "docs")
-
-namespace "docs" do
-  desc "Generate documentation for all plugins"
-  task "generate" do
-    Rake::Task['docs:generate-plugins'].invoke
-  end
-
-  desc "Generate the doc for all the currently installed plugins"
-  task "generate-plugins", [:output] do |t, args|
-    args.with_defaults(:output => DEFAULT_DOC_DIRECTORY)
-
-    require "bootstrap/environment"
-    require "logstash-core/logstash-core"
-    LogStash::Bundler.setup!({:without => [:build]})
-
-    require "logstash/docgen/logstash_generator"
-
-    FileUtils.mkdir_p(args[:output])
-    exit(LogStash::Docgen::LogStashGenerator.new(args[:output]).generate_plugins_docs)
-  end
-end
diff --git a/rakelib/plugin.rake b/rakelib/plugin.rake
index 3742b59b8d5..34f76e8bb86 100644
--- a/rakelib/plugin.rake
+++ b/rakelib/plugin.rake
@@ -18,9 +18,21 @@
 require_relative "default_plugins"
 require 'rubygems'
 require 'shellwords'
+require 'yaml'
 
 require 'bootstrap/environment'
 
+VERSION_FILE = "versions.yml"
+
+def get_versions
+  yaml_versions = YAML.safe_load(IO.read(VERSION_FILE))
+  {
+    "logstash" => yaml_versions["logstash"],
+    "logstash-core" =>  yaml_versions["logstash-core"],
+    "logstash-core-plugin-api" => yaml_versions["logstash-core-plugin-api"],
+  }
+end
+
 namespace "plugin" do
   def install_plugins(*args)
     require_relative "../lib/pluginmanager/main"
diff --git a/rakelib/test.rake b/rakelib/test.rake
index 26459d7471c..6d7c6e12b7e 100644
--- a/rakelib/test.rake
+++ b/rakelib/test.rake
@@ -15,60 +15,6 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-# we need to call exit explicitly  in order to set the proper exit code, otherwise
-# most common CI systems can not know whats up with this tests.
-
-require 'pathname'
-
 namespace "test" do
-  desc "run the ruby unit tests"
-  task "core-ruby" => "compliance" do
-    exit 1 unless system(*default_spec_command)
-  end
-
-  desc 'run the ruby compliance tests'
-  task 'compliance' do
-    exit 1 unless system('bin/rspec', '-fd', '--patern', 'spec/compliance/**/*_spec.rb')
-  end
-
-  def default_spec_command
-    ["bin/rspec", "-fd", "--pattern", "spec/unit/**/*_spec.rb,logstash-core/spec/**/*_spec.rb"]
-  end
-
-  desc "run core specs excluding slower tests like stress tests"
-  task "core-fast" do
-    exit 1 unless system(*(default_spec_command.concat(["--tag", "~stress_test"])))
-  end
-
-  desc "run all installed plugins specs"
-  task "plugins" => "bootstrap" do
-    plugins_to_exclude = ENV.fetch("EXCLUDE_PLUGIN", "").split(",")
-    # the module LogStash::PluginManager requires the file `lib/pluginmanager/plugin_aliases.yml`,
-    # that file is created during the bootstrap task
-    require "pluginmanager/util"
-
-    # grab all spec files using the live plugins gem specs. this allows correctly also running the specs
-    # of a local plugin dir added using the Gemfile :path option. before this, any local plugin spec would
-    # not be run because they were not under the vendor/bundle/jruby/2.0/gems path
-    test_files = LogStash::PluginManager.find_plugins_gem_specs.map do |spec|
-      if plugins_to_exclude.size > 0
-        if !plugins_to_exclude.include?(Pathname.new(spec.gem_dir).basename.to_s)
-          Rake::FileList[File.join(spec.gem_dir, "spec/{input,filter,codec,output}s/*_spec.rb")]
-        end
-      else
-        Rake::FileList[File.join(spec.gem_dir, "spec/{input,filter,codec,output}s/*_spec.rb")]
-      end
-    end.flatten.compact
-
-    # "--format=documentation"
-    exit 1 unless system(*(["bin/rspec", "-fd", "--order", "rand"].concat(test_files)))
-  end
-
-  desc "install dev dependencies"
   task "install-core" => ["bootstrap", "plugin:install-development-dependencies"]
-
-  desc "install default plugins and dev dependencies"
-  task "install-default" => ["bootstrap", "plugin:install-default", "plugin:install-development-dependencies"]
 end
-
-task "test" => ["test:core-ruby"]
diff --git a/rakelib/vendor.rake b/rakelib/vendor.rake
index 80d0b67c340..4c0898ccfea 100644
--- a/rakelib/vendor.rake
+++ b/rakelib/vendor.rake
@@ -16,10 +16,6 @@
 # under the License.
 
 namespace "vendor" do
-  namespace "force" do
-    task "gems" => ["vendor:gems"]
-  end
-
   task "gems", [:bundle] do |task, args|
     require "bootstrap/environment"
 
@@ -33,9 +29,4 @@ namespace "vendor" do
     end
   end # task gems
   task "all" => "gems"
-
-  desc "Clean the vendored files"
-  task :clean do
-    rm_rf('vendor')
-  end
 end
diff --git a/rakelib/version.rake b/rakelib/version.rake
deleted file mode 100644
index 72de1af05f2..00000000000
--- a/rakelib/version.rake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,124 +0,0 @@
-# Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
-# license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-# this work for additional information regarding copyright
-# ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
-# the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-# not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
-# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
-# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
-# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
-# specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-require 'yaml'
-
-VERSION_FILE = "versions.yml"
-README_FILE = "README.md"
-INDEX_SHARED1_FILE = "docs/index.asciidoc"
-
-def get_versions
-  yaml_versions = YAML.safe_load(IO.read(VERSION_FILE))
-  {
-    "logstash" => yaml_versions["logstash"],
-    "logstash-core" =>  yaml_versions["logstash-core"],
-    "logstash-core-plugin-api" => yaml_versions["logstash-core-plugin-api"],
-  }
-end
-
-# Update the version file, keeping the comments in tact
-def update_version_file(old_version, new_version)
-  versions_as_text = IO.read(VERSION_FILE)
-  %w(logstash logstash-core logstash-core-plugin-api).each do |field|
-    versions_as_text.gsub!(/(?<=#{field}: )#{old_version[field]}/, "#{new_version[field]}")
-  end
-  IO.write(VERSION_FILE, versions_as_text)
-end
-
-def update_lock_release_file(old_version, new_version)
-  lock_file = Dir.glob('Gemfile*.lock.release').first
-  unless lock_file
-    warn "Gemfile*.lock.release missing - skipping version update"
-    return
-  end
-  old_version = old_version['logstash-core']
-  new_version = new_version['logstash-core']
-  versions_as_text = IO.read(lock_file)
-  #      logstash-core (= 7.16.0)
-  versions_as_text.sub!(/logstash-core \(=\s?(#{old_version})\)/) { |m| m.sub(old_version, new_version) }
-  #    logstash-core (7.16.0-java)
-  versions_as_text.sub!(/logstash-core \((#{old_version})-java\)/) { |m| m.sub(old_version, new_version) }
-  IO.write(lock_file, versions_as_text)
-end
-
-def update_index_shared1(new_version)
-  index_shared1 = IO.read(INDEX_SHARED1_FILE)
-  old_version = index_shared1.match(':logstash_version:\s+(?<logstash_version>\d[.]\d[.]\d.*)')[:logstash_version]
-  %w(logstash elasticsearch kibana).each do |field|
-    index_shared1.gsub!(/(:#{field}_version:\s+)#{old_version}/) { "#{$1}#{new_version}" }
-  end
-  IO.write(INDEX_SHARED1_FILE, index_shared1)
-end
-
-def update_readme(old_version, new_version)
-  readme = IO.read(README_FILE)
-  readme.gsub!(/(logstash\-(oss\-)?)#{old_version['logstash']}/) { "#{$1}#{new_version['logstash']}" }
-  IO.write(README_FILE, readme)
-end
-
-namespace :version do
-  desc "show version of core components"
-  task :show do
-    get_versions.each do |component, version|
-      puts "#{component}: #{version}"
-    end
-  end
-
-  desc "set version of logstash, logstash-core"
-  task :set, [:version] => [:validate] do |t, args|
-    new_version = {}
-    get_versions.each do |component, version|
-      # we just assume that, usually, all components except
-      # "logstash-core-plugin-api" will be versioned together
-      # so let's skip this one and have a separate task for it
-      if component == "logstash-core-plugin-api"
-        new_version[component] = version
-      else
-        new_version[component] = args[:version]
-      end
-    end
-    old_version = YAML.safe_load(File.read(VERSION_FILE))
-    update_readme(old_version, new_version)
-    update_version_file(old_version, new_version)
-    update_lock_release_file(old_version, new_version)
-  end
-
-  desc "set stack version referenced in docs"
-  task :set_doc_version, [:version] => [:validate] do |t, args|
-    update_index_shared1(args[:version])
-  end
-
-  desc "set version of logstash-core-plugin-api"
-  task :set_plugin_api, [:version] => [:validate] do |t, args|
-    new_version = {}
-    get_versions.each do |component, version|
-      if component == "logstash-core-plugin-api"
-        new_version[component] = args[:version]
-      else
-        new_version[component] = version
-      end
-    end
-    old_version = YAML.safe_load(File.read(VERSION_FILE))
-    update_version_file(old_version, new_version)
-  end
-
-  task :validate, :version do |t, args|
-    unless Regexp.new('^\d+\.\d+\.\d+(?:-\w+\d+)?$').match(args[:version])
-      abort("Invalid version argument: \"#{args[:version]}\". Aborting...")
-    end
-  end
-end