diff --git a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/BackendRegistry.java b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/BackendRegistry.java
index c16f90fb6a..966b6433c3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/BackendRegistry.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/BackendRegistry.java
@@ -257,6 +257,7 @@ && isBlocked(((InetSocketAddress) request.getHttpChannel().getRemoteAddress()).g
             final AuthCredentials ac;
             try {
                 ac = httpAuthenticator.extractCredentials(request, threadContext);
+                System.out.println("Extracted auth creds has username " + ac.getUsername() + " and password " + ac.getPassword());
             } catch (Exception e1) {
                 if (isDebugEnabled) {
                     log.debug("'{}' extracting credentials from {} http authenticator", e1.toString(), httpAuthenticator.getType(), e1);
@@ -293,6 +294,7 @@ && isBlocked(((InetSocketAddress) request.getHttpChannel().getRemoteAddress()).g
                 }
             } else {
                 org.apache.logging.log4j.ThreadContext.put("user", ac.getUsername());
+                System.out.println("Username is " + ac.getUsername());
                 if (!ac.isComplete()) {
                     // credentials found in request but we need another client challenge
                     if (httpAuthenticator.reRequestAuthentication(channel, ac)) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/internal/InternalAuthenticationBackend.java b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/internal/InternalAuthenticationBackend.java
index 98443a2902..e97c26b3bc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/internal/InternalAuthenticationBackend.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/auth/internal/InternalAuthenticationBackend.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 
 import org.bouncycastle.crypto.generators.OpenBSDBCrypt;
+import org.bouncycastle.util.Strings;
 import org.greenrobot.eventbus.Subscribe;
 
 import org.opensearch.OpenSearchSecurityException;
@@ -90,12 +91,13 @@ public boolean exists(User user) {
      * @return Whether the hash matches the provided password
      */
     public boolean passwordMatchesHash(String hash, char[] array) {
+        System.out.println("Checking if password matches hash. Hash is: " + hash + " array is: " + array.toString() + " Match is " + OpenBSDBCrypt.checkPassword(hash, array));
         return OpenBSDBCrypt.checkPassword(hash, array);
     }
 
     @Override
     public User authenticate(final AuthCredentials credentials) {
-
+        System.out.println("Authenticating creds with name: " + credentials.getUsername() + " and password: " + credentials.getPassword());
         boolean userExists;
 
         if (internalUsersModel == null) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/configuration/ConfigurationRepository.java b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/configuration/ConfigurationRepository.java
index 24e85b1307..c58bbb63e6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/configuration/ConfigurationRepository.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/security/configuration/ConfigurationRepository.java
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
 import org.opensearch.security.support.ConfigHelper;
 import org.opensearch.security.support.SecurityUtils;
 import org.opensearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
+import static java.lang.Thread.sleep;
 import static org.opensearch.security.dlic.rest.support.Utils.hash;
 
 public class ConfigurationRepository {
@@ -228,7 +229,7 @@ private ConfigurationRepository(
                     } catch (Exception e) {
                         LOGGER.debug("Unable to load configuration due to {}", String.valueOf(ExceptionUtils.getRootCause(e)));
                         try {
-                            Thread.sleep(3000);
+                            sleep(3000);
                         } catch (InterruptedException e1) {
                             Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
                             LOGGER.debug("Thread was interrupted so we cancel initialization");
@@ -258,16 +259,11 @@ private ConfigurationRepository(
                 }
 
                 LOGGER.info("Node '{}' initialized", clusterService.localNode().getName());
-
+                createAdminUser();
+                sleep(1000);
             } catch (Exception e) {
                 LOGGER.error("Unexpected exception while initializing node " + e, e);
             }
-
-            try {
-                createAdminUser();
-            } catch (IOException | PrivilegedActionException e) {
-                throw new RuntimeException(e);
-            }
         });
 
     }
@@ -304,7 +300,7 @@ private void waitForSecurityIndexToBeAtLeastYellow() {
                 response == null ? "no response" : (response.isTimedOut() ? "timeout" : "other, maybe red cluster")
             );
             try {
-                Thread.sleep(500);
+                sleep(500);
             } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                 // ignore
                 Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
@@ -491,6 +487,7 @@ private void createAdminUser() throws IOException, PrivilegedActionException {
 
         String plaintextPassword = this.settings.get(ConfigConstants.SECURITY_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
         String hashedPassword = hash(plaintextPassword.toCharArray());
+        System.out.println("Providing hash for admin of: " + hashedPassword);
         String userJsonAsString = "{ \"hash\" : \""
             + hashedPassword
             + "\", \"backend_roles\": [\"admin\"], "
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/security/InitializationIntegrationTests.java b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/security/InitializationIntegrationTests.java
index 6c46915fa6..b968991177 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/security/InitializationIntegrationTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/security/InitializationIntegrationTests.java
@@ -294,7 +294,8 @@ public void testInvalidDefaultConfig() throws Exception {
             final String defaultInitDirectory = ClusterHelper.updateDefaultDirectory(
                 new File(TEST_RESOURCE_RELATIVE_PATH + "invalid_config").getAbsolutePath()
             );
-            final Settings settings = Settings.builder().put(ConfigConstants.SECURITY_ALLOW_DEFAULT_INIT_SECURITYINDEX, true).build();
+            System.out.println("Default init dir: " + defaultInitDirectory);
+            final Settings settings = Settings.builder().put(ConfigConstants.SECURITY_ALLOW_DEFAULT_INIT_SECURITYINDEX, true).put(ConfigConstants.SECURITY_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD, "testPassword").build();
             setup(Settings.EMPTY, null, settings, false);
             RestHelper rh = nonSslRestHelper();
             Thread.sleep(10000);