diff --git a/src/pmdas/elasticsearch/pmdaelasticsearch.pl b/src/pmdas/elasticsearch/pmdaelasticsearch.pl
index e926b18..edfa921 100755
--- a/src/pmdas/elasticsearch/pmdaelasticsearch.pl
+++ b/src/pmdas/elasticsearch/pmdaelasticsearch.pl
@@ -49,7 +49,12 @@ $http->timeout($http_timeout);	# if elasticsearch not timely, no soup for you
 # http GET of elasticsearch json from a given url
 sub es_agent_get
 {
-    my $response = $http->get(shift);
+    my $request = shift;
+
+    $pmda->log("es_agent_get: $request");
+    my $response = $http->get($request);
+    $pmda->log("es_agent_get success: $response->is_success");
+
     return undef unless $response->is_success;
     return $response->decoded_content;
 }
@@ -369,6 +374,7 @@ sub es_fetch_callback
 }
 
 $pmda = PCP::PMDA->new('elasticsearch', 108);
+$pmda->connect_pmcd;
 
 # cluster stats
 $pmda->add_metric(pmda_pmid(0,0), PM_TYPE_STRING, PM_INDOM_NULL,