diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsIT.java
index 47a32be0871d2..a61065d4445a6 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsIT.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.integration;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.ResourceNotFoundException;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionFuture;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkRequestBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.index.IndexRequest;
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.action.ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.action.PutDataFrameAnalyticsAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsSource;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.analyses.BoostedTreeParams;
@@ -22,6 +24,8 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.utils.QueryProvider;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.lessThanOrEqualTo;
@@ -127,6 +131,49 @@ public void testTrainingPercentageIsApplied() throws IOException {
                    lessThanOrEqualTo(allDataUsedForTraining));
     }
 
+    public void testSimultaneousExplainSameConfig() throws IOException {
+
+        final int simultaneousInvocationCount = 10;
+
+        String sourceIndex = "test-simultaneous-explain";
+        RegressionIT.indexData(sourceIndex, 100, 0);
+
+        DataFrameAnalyticsConfig config = new DataFrameAnalyticsConfig.Builder()
+            .setId("dfa-simultaneous-explain-" + sourceIndex)
+            .setSource(new DataFrameAnalyticsSource(new String[]{sourceIndex},
+                QueryProvider.fromParsedQuery(QueryBuilders.matchAllQuery()),
+                null))
+            .setAnalysis(new Regression(RegressionIT.DEPENDENT_VARIABLE_FIELD,
+                BoostedTreeParams.builder().build(),
+                null,
+                100.0,
+                null,
+                null,
+                null))
+            .buildForExplain();
+
+        List<ActionFuture<ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Response>> futures = new ArrayList<>();
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < simultaneousInvocationCount; ++i) {
+            futures.add(client().execute(ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction.INSTANCE, new PutDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Request(config)));
+        }
+
+        ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Response previous = null;
+        for (ActionFuture<ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Response> future : futures) {
+            // The main purpose of this test is that actionGet() here will throw an exception
+            // if any of the simultaneous calls returns an error due to interaction between
+            // the many estimation processes that get run
+            ExplainDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Response current = future.actionGet(10000);
+            if (previous != null) {
+                // A secondary check the test can perform is that the multiple invocations
+                // return the same result (but it was failures due to unwanted interactions
+                // that caused this test to be written)
+                assertEquals(previous, current);
+            }
+            previous = current;
+        }
+    }
+
     @Override
     boolean supportsInference() {
         return false;
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/dataframe/process/NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/dataframe/process/NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory.java
index 3b14c314f0a14..491cdedd7a77d 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/dataframe/process/NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/dataframe/process/NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 import java.util.function.Consumer;
 
 public class NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory implements AnalyticsProcessFactory<MemoryUsageEstimationResult> {
@@ -39,11 +40,13 @@ public class NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory implements AnalyticsProce
 
     private final Environment env;
     private final NativeController nativeController;
+    private final AtomicLong counter;
     private volatile Duration processConnectTimeout;
 
     public NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcessFactory(Environment env, NativeController nativeController, ClusterService clusterService) {
         this.env = Objects.requireNonNull(env);
         this.nativeController = Objects.requireNonNull(nativeController);
+        this.counter = new AtomicLong(0);
         setProcessConnectTimeout(MachineLearning.PROCESS_CONNECT_TIMEOUT.get(env.settings()));
         clusterService.getClusterSettings().addSettingsUpdateConsumer(
             MachineLearning.PROCESS_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, this::setProcessConnectTimeout);
@@ -61,8 +64,13 @@ public NativeMemoryUsageEstimationProcess createAnalyticsProcess(
             ExecutorService executorService,
             Consumer<String> onProcessCrash) {
         List<Path> filesToDelete = new ArrayList<>();
+        // The config ID passed to the process pipes is only used to make the file names unique.  Since memory estimation can be
+        // called many times in quick succession for the same config the config ID alone is not sufficient to guarantee that the
+        // memory estimation process pipe names are unique.  Therefore an increasing counter value is appended to the config ID
+        // to ensure uniqueness between calls.
         ProcessPipes processPipes = new ProcessPipes(
-            env, NAMED_PIPE_HELPER, AnalyticsBuilder.ANALYTICS, config.getId(), false, false, true, false, false);
+            env, NAMED_PIPE_HELPER, AnalyticsBuilder.ANALYTICS, config.getId() + "_" + counter.incrementAndGet(),
+            false, false, true, false, false);
 
         createNativeProcess(config.getId(), analyticsProcessConfig, filesToDelete, processPipes);