diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/Classification.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/Classification.java
index ed4cb1fe18f8e..cbd78b4f3baab 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/Classification.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/Classification.java
@@ -251,12 +251,12 @@ public boolean supportsMissingValues() {
 
     @Override
     public boolean persistsState() {
-        return false;
+        return true;
     }
 
     @Override
     public String getStateDocId(String jobId) {
-        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+        return jobId + "_classification_state#1";
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/ClassificationTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/ClassificationTests.java
index 8308ef8dad289..75a7410f181ba 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/ClassificationTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ml/dataframe/analyses/ClassificationTests.java
@@ -209,4 +209,11 @@ public void testToXContent_GivenEmptyParams() throws IOException {
             assertThat(json, containsString("randomize_seed"));
         }
     }
+
+    public void testGetStateDocId() {
+        Classification classification = createRandom();
+        assertThat(classification.persistsState(), is(true));
+        String randomId = randomAlphaOfLength(10);
+        assertThat(classification.getStateDocId(randomId), equalTo(randomId + "_classification_state#1"));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ClassificationIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ClassificationIT.java
index 0e49043fcfbe5..0c486fdeee678 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ClassificationIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ClassificationIT.java
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ public void testSingleNumericFeatureAndMixedTrainingAndNonTrainingRows() throws
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [classification]",
@@ -135,6 +136,7 @@ public void testWithOnlyTrainingRowsAndTrainingPercentIsHundred() throws Excepti
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [classification]",
@@ -195,6 +197,7 @@ public <T> void testWithOnlyTrainingRowsAndTrainingPercentIsFifty(
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [classification]",
@@ -447,4 +450,8 @@ private <T> void assertEvaluation(String dependentVariable, List<T> dependentVar
             assertThat(confusionMatrixResult.getOtherActualClassCount(), equalTo(0L));
         }
     }
+
+    protected String stateDocId() {
+        return jobId + "_classification_state#1";
+    }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlNativeDataFrameAnalyticsIntegTestCase.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlNativeDataFrameAnalyticsIntegTestCase.java
index 8ff82c28b36e0..980f5f4da5ecb 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlNativeDataFrameAnalyticsIntegTestCase.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlNativeDataFrameAnalyticsIntegTestCase.java
@@ -274,4 +274,11 @@ protected static Set<String> getTrainingRowsIds(String index) {
         assertThat(trainingRowsIds.isEmpty(), is(false));
         return trainingRowsIds;
     }
+
+    protected static void assertModelStatePersisted(String stateDocId) {
+        SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch(AnomalyDetectorsIndex.jobStateIndexPattern())
+            .setQuery(QueryBuilders.idsQuery().addIds(stateDocId))
+            .get();
+        assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().getHits().length, equalTo(1));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/RegressionIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/RegressionIT.java
index 84d408daacc61..29480d711f37f 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/RegressionIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/RegressionIT.java
@@ -12,14 +12,12 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.SearchHit;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsState;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.analyses.BoostedTreeParams;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.analyses.BoostedTreeParamsTests;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.analyses.Regression;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.job.persistence.AnomalyDetectorsIndex;
 import org.junit.After;
 
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -82,7 +80,7 @@ public void testSingleNumericFeatureAndMixedTrainingAndNonTrainingRows() throws
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
-        assertModelStatePersisted(jobId);
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [regression]",
@@ -119,7 +117,7 @@ public void testWithOnlyTrainingRowsAndTrainingPercentIsHundred() throws Excepti
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
-        assertModelStatePersisted(jobId);
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [regression]",
@@ -171,7 +169,7 @@ public void testWithOnlyTrainingRowsAndTrainingPercentIsFifty() throws Exception
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
-        assertModelStatePersisted(jobId);
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
         assertThatAuditMessagesMatch(jobId,
             "Created analytics with analysis type [regression]",
@@ -233,7 +231,7 @@ public void testStopAndRestart() throws Exception {
 
         assertProgress(jobId, 100, 100, 100, 100);
         assertThat(searchStoredProgress(jobId).getHits().getTotalHits().value, equalTo(1L));
-        assertModelStatePersisted(jobId);
+        assertModelStatePersisted(stateDocId());
         assertInferenceModelPersisted(jobId);
     }
 
@@ -324,11 +322,7 @@ private static Map<String, Object> getMlResultsObjectFromDestDoc(Map<String, Obj
         return resultsObject;
     }
 
-    private static void assertModelStatePersisted(String jobId) {
-        String docId = jobId + "_regression_state#1";
-        SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch(AnomalyDetectorsIndex.jobStateIndexPattern())
-            .setQuery(QueryBuilders.idsQuery().addIds(docId))
-            .get();
-        assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().getHits().length, equalTo(1));
+    protected String stateDocId() {
+        return jobId + "_regression_state#1";
     }
 }