diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/indices/replication/SegmentReplicatorTest.java b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/indices/replication/SegmentReplicatorTest.java
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+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/indices/replication/SegmentReplicatorTest.java
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+/*
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ *
+ * The OpenSearch Contributors require contributions made to
+ * this file be licensed under the Apache-2.0 license or a
+ * compatible open source license.
+ */
+
+package org.opensearch.indices.replication;
+
+import org.opensearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.opensearch.core.action.ActionListener;
+import org.opensearch.index.engine.NRTReplicationEngineFactory;
+import org.opensearch.index.replication.TestReplicationSource;
+import org.opensearch.index.shard.IndexShard;
+import org.opensearch.index.shard.IndexShardTestCase;
+import org.opensearch.index.store.StoreFileMetadata;
+import org.opensearch.indices.replication.checkpoint.ReplicationCheckpoint;
+import org.opensearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.function.BiConsumer;
+
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
+
+import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.spy;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+public class SegmentReplicatorTest extends IndexShardTestCase {
+
+    public void testStartReplicationWithoutSourceFactory() {
+        ThreadPool threadpool = mock(ThreadPool.class);
+        ExecutorService mock = mock(ExecutorService.class);
+        when(threadpool.generic()).thenReturn(mock);
+        SegmentReplicator segmentReplicator = new SegmentReplicator(threadpool);
+
+        IndexShard shard = mock(IndexShard.class);
+        segmentReplicator.startReplication(shard);
+        Mockito.verifyNoInteractions(mock);
+    }
+
+    public void testStartReplicationRuns() throws IOException {
+        ThreadPool threadpool = mock(ThreadPool.class);
+        ExecutorService mock = mock(ExecutorService.class);
+        when(threadpool.generic()).thenReturn(mock);
+        final IndexShard indexShard = newStartedShard(randomBoolean(), Settings.EMPTY, new NRTReplicationEngineFactory());
+        SegmentReplicator segmentReplicator = spy(new SegmentReplicator(threadpool));
+        SegmentReplicationSourceFactory factory = mock(SegmentReplicationSourceFactory.class);
+        when(factory.get(indexShard)).thenReturn(new TestReplicationSource() {
+            @Override
+            public void getCheckpointMetadata(
+                long replicationId,
+                ReplicationCheckpoint checkpoint,
+                ActionListener<CheckpointInfoResponse> listener
+            ) {}
+
+            @Override
+            public void getSegmentFiles(
+                long replicationId,
+                ReplicationCheckpoint checkpoint,
+                List<StoreFileMetadata> filesToFetch,
+                IndexShard indexShard,
+                BiConsumer<String, Long> fileProgressTracker,
+                ActionListener<GetSegmentFilesResponse> listener
+            ) {}
+        });
+        segmentReplicator.setSourceFactory(factory);
+        segmentReplicator.startReplication(indexShard);
+        verify(mock, times(1)).execute(any());
+
+        // this startReplication entrypoint creates a SegmentReplicationTarget that incref's the shard's store
+        // but it is actually run from this test bc we mock the executor. We just want to test that it is
+        // created and passed to the threadpool for execution, so close the store here.
+        indexShard.store().decRef();
+        closeShards(indexShard);
+    }
+}