diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/README.md b/solr/contrib/ltr/README.md
index b432aa7a96f0..6ac732193634 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/README.md
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/README.md
@@ -98,23 +98,8 @@ BONUS: Train an actual machine learning model
   transformer enclosed between brackets (in this case [features]).
   In order to get the feature vector you will have to
   specify that you want the field (e.g., fl="*,[features])  -->
-  <transformer name="features" class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRFeatureLoggerTransformerFactory" />
-
 
-  <!-- Component that hooks up managed resources for features and models -->
-  <searchComponent name="ltrComponent" class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRComponent"/>
-  <requestHandler name="/query" class="solr.SearchHandler">
-    <lst name="defaults">
-      <str name="echoParams">explicit</str>
-      <str name="wt">json</str>
-      <str name="indent">true</str>
-      <str name="df">id</str>
-    </lst>
-    <arr name="last-components">
-      <!-- Use the component in your requestHandler -->
-      <str>ltrComponent</str>
-    </arr>
-  </requestHandler>
+  <transformer name="features" class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRFeatureLoggerTransformerFactory" />
 
   <query>
     ...
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/solrconfig.xml b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/solrconfig.xml
index a611e196aa00..618bf5f266d2 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/solrconfig.xml
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/solrconfig.xml
@@ -869,8 +869,6 @@
   <transformer name="features" class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRFeatureLoggerTransformerFactory" />
 
 
-  <!-- Component that hooks up managed resources for features and models -->
-  <searchComponent name="ltrComponent" class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRComponent" />
   <!-- A request handler that returns indented JSON by default -->
   <requestHandler name="/query" class="solr.SearchHandler">
      <lst name="defaults">
@@ -879,11 +877,7 @@
        <str name="indent">true</str>
        <str name="df">text</str>
      </lst>
-<arr name="last-components">
-      <!-- Use the component in your requestHandler -->
-      <str>ltrComponent</str>
-    </arr>
-  </requestHandler>
+ </requestHandler>
 
 
   <!-- A Robust Example
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-features.json b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-features.json
index f129f83e848f..1b2caffb283b 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-features.json
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-features.json
@@ -1,26 +1,26 @@
 [
 {
     "name":  "isInStock",
-    "type": "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.FieldValueFeature",
+    "class": "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.FieldValueFeature",
     "params": {
         "field": "inStock"
     }
 },
 {
     "name":  "price",
-    "type": "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.FieldValueFeature",
+    "class": "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.FieldValueFeature",
     "params": {
         "field": "price"
     }
 },
 {
     "name":"originalScore",
-    "type":"org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.OriginalScoreFeature",
+    "class":"org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.OriginalScoreFeature",
     "params":{}
 },
 {
     "name" : "productNameMatchQuery",
-    "type" : "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.SolrFeature",
+    "class" : "org.apache.solr.ltr.feature.impl.SolrFeature",
     "params" : { "q" : "{!field f=name}${user_query}" }
 }
 ]
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-model.json b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-model.json
index 38b0342197c0..09e339879aa5 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-model.json
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/example/techproducts-model.json
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 {
-    "type":"org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.RankSVMModel",
+    "class":"org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.RankSVMModel",
     "name":"svm",
     "features":[
     {"name":"isInStock"},
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/scripts/libSvmFormatter.py b/solr/contrib/ltr/scripts/libSvmFormatter.py
index 7890376cf660..1e14a6e6dc49 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/scripts/libSvmFormatter.py
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/scripts/libSvmFormatter.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ def _getFeatureId(self,key):
     def convertLibSvmModelToLtrModel(self,libSvmModelLocation, outputFile, modelName):
         with open(libSvmModelLocation, 'r') as inFile:
             with open(outputFile,'w') as convertedOutFile:
-                convertedOutFile.write('{\n\t"type":"org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.RankSVMModel",\n')
+                convertedOutFile.write('{\n\t"class":"org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.RankSVMModel",\n')
                 convertedOutFile.write('\t"name": "' + str(modelName) + '",\n')
                 convertedOutFile.write('\t"features": [\n')
                 isFirst = True;
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRComponent.java b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRComponent.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 0d3eaa09b654..000000000000
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRComponent.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
- * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
- * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
- * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
- * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
- * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-package org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking;
-
-import java.io.IOException;
-
-import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException;
-import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
-import org.apache.solr.core.SolrCore;
-import org.apache.solr.handler.component.ResponseBuilder;
-import org.apache.solr.handler.component.SearchComponent;
-import org.apache.solr.ltr.rest.ManagedFeatureStore;
-import org.apache.solr.ltr.rest.ManagedModelStore;
-import org.apache.solr.ltr.util.CommonLTRParams;
-import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResource;
-import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResourceObserver;
-import org.apache.solr.util.plugin.SolrCoreAware;
-
-/**
- * The FeatureVectorComponent is intended to be used for offline training of
- * your model in order to fetch the feature vectors of the top matching
- * documents.
- */
-public class LTRComponent extends SearchComponent implements SolrCoreAware,
-    ManagedResourceObserver {
- 
-  @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
-  @Override
-  public void init(NamedList args) {}
-
-  @Override
-  public void prepare(ResponseBuilder rb) throws IOException {}
-
-  @Override
-  public void process(ResponseBuilder rb) throws IOException {}
-
-  @Override
-  public String getDescription() {
-    return "Manages models and features in Solr";
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public void onManagedResourceInitialized(NamedList<?> args,
-      ManagedResource res) throws SolrException {
-    // FIXME do we need this?
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public void inform(SolrCore core) {
-    final ManagedFeatureStore fr = (ManagedFeatureStore) core.getRestManager().addManagedResource(
-        CommonLTRParams.FEATURE_STORE_END_POINT, ManagedFeatureStore.class);
-    final ManagedModelStore mr = (ManagedModelStore) core.getRestManager().addManagedResource(
-        CommonLTRParams.MODEL_STORE_END_POINT, ManagedModelStore.class);
-
-    mr.init(fr);
-    // now we can safely load the models
-    mr.loadStoredModels();
-  }
-}
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRQParserPlugin.java b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRQParserPlugin.java
index cedfe219f927..3e99a84e487f 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRQParserPlugin.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/java/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/LTRQParserPlugin.java
@@ -16,9 +16,12 @@
  */
 package org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.util.ResourceLoader;
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.util.ResourceLoaderAware;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException;
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException.ErrorCode;
@@ -26,10 +29,14 @@
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.log.FeatureLogger;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.model.LTRScoringModel;
+import org.apache.solr.core.SolrResourceLoader;
+import org.apache.solr.ltr.rest.ManagedFeatureStore;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.rest.ManagedModelStore;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.util.CommonLTRParams;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.util.LTRUtils;
 import org.apache.solr.request.SolrQueryRequest;
+import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResource;
+import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResourceObserver;
 import org.apache.solr.search.QParser;
 import org.apache.solr.search.QParserPlugin;
 import org.apache.solr.search.SyntaxError;
@@ -44,10 +51,13 @@
  * efi.myCompanyQueryIntent=0.98}
  *
  */
-public class LTRQParserPlugin extends QParserPlugin {
+public class LTRQParserPlugin extends QParserPlugin implements ResourceLoaderAware, ManagedResourceObserver {
   public static final String NAME = "ltr";
 
   private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());
+  
+  private ManagedFeatureStore fr = null;
+  private ManagedModelStore mr = null;
 
   @Override
   public void init(@SuppressWarnings("rawtypes") NamedList args) {
@@ -63,9 +73,34 @@ public QParser createParser(String qstr, SolrParams localParams,
     return new LTRQParser(qstr, localParams, params, req);
   }
 
-  public class LTRQParser extends QParser {
+  @Override
+  public void inform(ResourceLoader loader) throws IOException {
+      SolrResourceLoader solrResourceLoader = (SolrResourceLoader) loader;
+      solrResourceLoader.getManagedResourceRegistry().
+              registerManagedResource(CommonLTRParams.FEATURE_STORE_END_POINT, ManagedFeatureStore.class, this);
 
-    ManagedModelStore mr = null;
+      solrResourceLoader.getManagedResourceRegistry().
+              registerManagedResource(CommonLTRParams.MODEL_STORE_END_POINT, ManagedModelStore.class, this);
+
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void onManagedResourceInitialized(NamedList<?> args, ManagedResource res) throws SolrException {
+    if (res instanceof ManagedFeatureStore) {
+        fr = (ManagedFeatureStore)res;
+    }
+    if (res instanceof ManagedModelStore){
+        mr = (ManagedModelStore)res;
+    }
+    if (mr != null && fr != null){
+        mr.init(fr);
+        // now we can safely load the models
+        mr.loadStoredModels();
+
+    }
+  }
+
+  public class LTRQParser extends QParser {
 
     public LTRQParser(String qstr, SolrParams localParams, SolrParams params,
         SolrQueryRequest req) {
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-ltr.xml b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-ltr.xml
index 628a84bbc08d..aa786d5d0153 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-ltr.xml
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-ltr.xml
@@ -30,10 +30,6 @@
    initialSize="2048" autowarmCount="4096" regenerator="solr.search.NoOpRegenerator" />
  </query>
 
-
- <searchComponent name="ltrComponent"
-  class="org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRComponent" />
-
  <!-- add a transformer that will encode the document features in the response.
   For each document the transformer will add the features as an extra field
   in the response. The name of the field we will be the the name of the transformer
@@ -64,9 +60,6 @@
    <str name="indent">true</str>
    <str name="df">id</str>
   </lst>
-  <arr name="last-components">
-   <str>ltrComponent</str>
-  </arr>
  </requestHandler>
 
 </config>
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/TestSolrCloud.java b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/TestSolrCloud.java
index d5cfbfc3cec9..e2fda3d2522e 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/TestSolrCloud.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/ranking/TestSolrCloud.java
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+/* * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
@@ -39,36 +38,25 @@
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
-public class TestSolrCloud extends TestRerankBase {
+public class TestSolrCloud  extends TestRerankBase {
 
   private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());
 
   private MiniSolrCloudCluster solrCluster;
-  
+  String solrconfig = "solrconfig-ltr.xml";
+  String schema = "schema-ltr.xml";
+    
+  SortedMap<ServletHolder,String> extraServlets = null; 
+
   @Override
   public void setUp() throws Exception {
     super.setUp();
-
-    String solrconfig = "solrconfig-ltr.xml";
-    String schema = "schema-ltr.xml";
-    
-    SortedMap<ServletHolder,String> extraServlets = 
-        setupTestInit(solrconfig,schema,true);
+    extraServlets = setupTestInit(solrconfig, schema, true);
     System.setProperty("enable.update.log", "true");
-    
-    
-    JettyConfig jc = buildJettyConfig("/solr");
-    jc = JettyConfig.builder(jc).withServlets(extraServlets).build();
-    solrCluster = new MiniSolrCloudCluster(3, tmpSolrHome.toPath(), jc);
-    File configDir = tmpSolrHome.toPath().resolve("collection1/conf").toFile();
-    solrCluster.uploadConfigDir(configDir, "conf1");
-
-    solrCluster.getSolrClient().setDefaultCollection(COLLECTION);
-    createTestCollection(COLLECTION);
-    createJettyAndHarness(tmpSolrHome.getAbsolutePath(), solrconfig, schema,
-        "/solr", true, extraServlets);
   }
 
+
+
   @Override
   public void tearDown() throws Exception {
     restTestHarness.close();
@@ -79,10 +67,7 @@ public void tearDown() throws Exception {
     super.tearDown();
   }
   
-  @Test
-  public void testSimpleQuery() throws Exception {
-    
-    //add models and features
+  private void loadModelsAndFeatures() throws Exception {
     String featureJson1 = getFeatureInJson(
         "powpularityS", SolrFeature.class.getCanonicalName(),
         "test","{\"q\":\"{!func}pow(popularity,2)\"}");
@@ -93,35 +78,57 @@ public void testSimpleQuery() throws Exception {
         "test", "{\"value\":2}");
     assertJPut(CommonLTRParams.FEATURE_STORE_END_POINT, featureJson2,
         "/responseHeader/status==0");
-    
-    
     String modelJson = getModelInJson(
         "powpularityS-model", RankSVMModel.class.getCanonicalName(),
         new String[] {"powpularityS","c3"}, "test", 
         "{\"weights\":{\"powpularityS\":1.0,\"c3\":1.0}}");
     assertJPut(CommonLTRParams.MODEL_STORE_END_POINT, modelJson,
         "/responseHeader/status==0");
-    
-    
     reloadCollection(COLLECTION);
+  }
+
+  private void setupSolrCluster(int numShards, int numReplicas) throws Exception {
+    JettyConfig jc = buildJettyConfig("/solr");
+    jc = JettyConfig.builder(jc).withServlets(extraServlets).build();
+    solrCluster = new MiniSolrCloudCluster(3, tmpSolrHome.toPath(), jc);
+    File configDir = tmpSolrHome.toPath().resolve("collection1/conf").toFile();
+    solrCluster.uploadConfigDir(configDir, "conf1");
+
+    solrCluster.getSolrClient().setDefaultCollection(COLLECTION);
+    createTestCollection(COLLECTION, numShards, numReplicas);
+    createJettyAndHarness(tmpSolrHome.getAbsolutePath(), solrconfig, schema,
+        "/solr", true, extraServlets);
+    loadModelsAndFeatures();
+  }
+
+
+  @Test
+  public void testSimpleQuery() throws Exception {
+    // will randomly pick a configuration with [1..5] shards and [1..3] replicas
+    int numberOfShards = random().nextInt(4)+1;
+    int numberOfReplicas = random().nextInt(2)+1;
+
+    setupSolrCluster(numberOfShards, numberOfReplicas);
+    // Test regular query, it will sort the documents by inverse 
+    // popularity (the less popular, docid == 1, will be in the first
+    // position
+    SolrQuery query = new SolrQuery("{!func}sub(8,field(popularity))");
 
-    //Test regular query
-    SolrQuery query = new SolrQuery("{!func}pow(popularity,-1)");
     query.setRequestHandler("/query");
     query.setFields("*,score");
-    query.setParam("rows", "4");
-    
+    query.setParam("rows", "8");
+        
     QueryResponse queryResponse = 
-        solrCluster.getSolrClient().query(COLLECTION,query);
+        solrCluster.getSolrClient().query(COLLECTION,query); 
     assertEquals(8, queryResponse.getResults().getNumFound());
-    assertEquals("1", queryResponse.getResults().get(0).get("id").toString());
-    assertEquals("2", queryResponse.getResults().get(1).get("id").toString());
-    assertEquals("3", queryResponse.getResults().get(2).get("id").toString());
-    assertEquals("4", queryResponse.getResults().get(3).get("id").toString());
+    assertEquals("5", queryResponse.getResults().get(0).get("id").toString());
+    assertEquals("6", queryResponse.getResults().get(1).get("id").toString());
+    assertEquals("7", queryResponse.getResults().get(2).get("id").toString());
+    assertEquals("8", queryResponse.getResults().get(3).get("id").toString());
     
-    //Test re-rank and feature vectors returned
+    // Test re-rank and feature vectors returned
     query.setFields("*,score,features:[fv]");
-    query.add("rq", "{!ltr model=powpularityS-model reRankDocs=4}");
+    query.add("rq", "{!ltr model=powpularityS-model reRankDocs=8}");
     queryResponse = 
         solrCluster.getSolrClient().query(COLLECTION,query);
     assertEquals(8, queryResponse.getResults().getNumFound());
@@ -139,13 +146,13 @@ public void testSimpleQuery() throws Exception {
         queryResponse.getResults().get(3).get("features").toString());
   }
 
-  private void createCollection(String name, String config) throws Exception {
+  private void createCollection(String name, String config, int numShards, int numReplicas)
+      throws Exception {
     CollectionAdminResponse response;
-    final int numShards = 1;
-    final int numReplicas = 1;
     CollectionAdminRequest.Create create = 
         CollectionAdminRequest.createCollection(name, config, numShards, numReplicas);
-    create.setMaxShardsPerNode(1);
+    // Maybe this should be a randomized variable? 
+    create.setMaxShardsPerNode(2);
     response = create.process(solrCluster.getSolrClient());
 
     if (response.getStatus() != 0 || response.getErrorMessages() != null) {
@@ -155,8 +162,9 @@ private void createCollection(String name, String config) throws Exception {
     AbstractDistribZkTestBase.waitForRecoveriesToFinish(name, zkStateReader, false, true, 100);
   }
 
-  private void createTestCollection(String collection) throws Exception {
-    createCollection(collection, "conf1");
+  private void createTestCollection(String collection, int numShards, int numReplicas) 
+       throws Exception {
+    createCollection(collection, "conf1", numShards, numReplicas);
     
     SolrInputDocument doc = new SolrInputDocument();
     doc.setField("id", "1");
@@ -190,28 +198,28 @@ private void createTestCollection(String collection) throws Exception {
     doc.setField("id", "5");
     doc.setField("title", "a1");
     doc.setField("description", "bloom");
-    doc.setField("popularity", 5);
+    doc.setField("popularity", 0);
     solrCluster.getSolrClient().add(collection, doc);
 
     doc = new SolrInputDocument();
     doc.setField("id", "6");
     doc.setField("title", "a1");
     doc.setField("description", "bloom");
-    doc.setField("popularity", 6);
+    doc.setField("popularity", 0);
     solrCluster.getSolrClient().add(collection, doc);
 
     doc = new SolrInputDocument();
     doc.setField("id", "7");
     doc.setField("title", "a1");
     doc.setField("description", "bloom");
-    doc.setField("popularity", 7);
+    doc.setField("popularity", 0);
     solrCluster.getSolrClient().add(collection, doc);
 
     doc = new SolrInputDocument();
     doc.setField("id", "8");
     doc.setField("title", "a1");
     doc.setField("description", "bloom");
-    doc.setField("popularity", 8);
+    doc.setField("popularity", 0);
     solrCluster.getSolrClient().add(collection, doc);
     
     solrCluster.getSolrClient().commit(collection);
@@ -230,4 +238,4 @@ public static void after() throws Exception {
     System.clearProperty("managed.schema.mutable");
   }
 
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/rest/TestModelManager.java b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/rest/TestModelManager.java
index 1c48283a7b8e..4a700bd7d650 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/rest/TestModelManager.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/ltr/src/test/org/apache/solr/ltr/rest/TestModelManager.java
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
 import org.apache.solr.core.SolrResourceLoader;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.TestRerankBase;
-import org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRComponent;
+import org.apache.solr.ltr.ranking.LTRQParserPlugin;
 import org.apache.solr.ltr.util.CommonLTRParams;
 import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResource;
 import org.apache.solr.rest.ManagedResourceStorage;
@@ -56,11 +56,11 @@ public void test() throws Exception {
 
     final String resourceId = "/schema/fstore1";
     registry.registerManagedResource(resourceId, ManagedFeatureStore.class,
-        new LTRComponent());
+        new LTRQParserPlugin());
 
     final String resourceId2 = "/schema/mstore1";
     registry.registerManagedResource(resourceId2, ManagedModelStore.class,
-        new LTRComponent());
+        new LTRQParserPlugin());
 
     final NamedList<String> initArgs = new NamedList<>();