diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/index/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/index/__init__.py
index 13686c67..cbd8b8cd 100644
--- a/rhodecode/lib/index/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/index/__init__.py
@@ -38,8 +38,11 @@ ES_VERSION_6 = '6'
 # for legacy reasons we keep 2 compat as default
 DEFAULT_ES_VERSION = ES_VERSION_2
 
-from rhodecode_tools.lib.fts_index.elasticsearch_engine_6 import \
-    ES_CONFIG  # pragma: no cover
+try:
+    from rhodecode_tools.lib.fts_index.elasticsearch_engine_6 import ES_CONFIG  # pragma: no cover
+except ImportError:
+    log.warning('rhodecode_tools not available, use of full text search is limited')
+    pass
 
 
 class BaseSearcher(object):