diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/collector/ccr/FollowStatsMonitoringDocTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/collector/ccr/FollowStatsMonitoringDocTests.java
index 410d573e1b4c0..33affe45fc46c 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/collector/ccr/FollowStatsMonitoringDocTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/collector/ccr/FollowStatsMonitoringDocTests.java
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ public void testShardFollowNodeTaskStatusFieldsMapped() throws IOException {
             10,
             fetchExceptions,
             2,
-            null);
+            new ElasticsearchException("fatal error"));
         XContentBuilder builder = jsonBuilder();
         builder.value(status);
         Map<String, Object> serializedStatus = XContentHelper.convertToMap(XContentType.JSON.xContent(), Strings.toString(builder), false);
@@ -266,6 +266,11 @@ public void testShardFollowNodeTaskStatusFieldsMapped() throws IOException {
                     assertThat(exceptionFieldMapping.size(), equalTo(2));
                     assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("type.type", exceptionFieldMapping), equalTo("keyword"));
                     assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("reason.type", exceptionFieldMapping), equalTo("text"));
+                } else if (fieldName.equals("fatal_exception")) {
+                    assertThat(fieldType, equalTo("object"));
+                    assertThat(((Map<?, ?>) fieldMapping.get("properties")).size(), equalTo(2));
+                    assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("properties.type.type", fieldMapping), equalTo("keyword"));
+                    assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("properties.reason.type", fieldMapping), equalTo("text"));
                 } else {
                     fail("unexpected field value type [" + fieldValue.getClass() + "] for field [" + fieldName + "]");
                 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/resources/monitoring-es.json b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/resources/monitoring-es.json
index 872d3df43a81f..426262cd48c03 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/resources/monitoring-es.json
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/resources/monitoring-es.json
@@ -1028,6 +1028,17 @@
             },
             "time_since_last_read_millis": {
               "type": "long"
+            },
+            "fatal_exception": {
+              "type": "object",
+              "properties": {
+                "type" : {
+                  "type": "keyword"
+                },
+                "reason": {
+                  "type": "text"
+                }
+              }
             }
           }
         },