diff --git a/src/Backend/BackendInterface.php b/src/Backend/BackendInterface.php
index 55038c3..75d18d1 100644
--- a/src/Backend/BackendInterface.php
+++ b/src/Backend/BackendInterface.php
@@ -81,4 +81,26 @@ interface BackendInterface extends ConfigurablePluginInterface, BackendSpecificI
    */
   public function preDelete();
 
+  /**
+   * Extra information that the backend plugin can provide about it's status.
+   *
+   * An example of provided information is the status of the underlying server,
+   * through a ping to the server. This would absolutely make sense for SOLR and
+   * elasticsearch but would not make sense for a database-backend when that is
+   * the same database as the one Drupal is running from.
+   *
+   * The data should an array with the keys:
+   * - status: A string that can be used to color the row, default is info.
+   * - label: The label of the of the message, shown in the left column.
+   *   This should be translatable.
+   * - description: The description of the message, shown in the right column.
+   *   This should be translatable.
+   *
+   * Because multiple of these can be returned, the backend should return an
+   * array of arrays.
+   *
+   * @return array[]
+   */
+  public function getExtraInformation();
+
 }
diff --git a/src/Backend/BackendPluginBase.php b/src/Backend/BackendPluginBase.php
index ecb1662..b209804 100644
--- a/src/Backend/BackendPluginBase.php
+++ b/src/Backend/BackendPluginBase.php
@@ -154,6 +154,13 @@ abstract class BackendPluginBase extends ConfigurablePluginBase implements Backe
   public function removeIndex($index) {}
 
   /**
+   * {@inheritdoc}
+   */
+  public function getExtraInformation() {
+    return array();
+  }
+
+  /**
    * Implements the magic __sleep() method.
    *
    * Prevents the server entity from being serialized.
diff --git a/tests/search_api_test_backend/src/Plugin/search_api/backend/TestBackend.php b/tests/search_api_test_backend/src/Plugin/search_api/backend/TestBackend.php
index cd044f3..ead1b43 100644
--- a/tests/search_api_test_backend/src/Plugin/search_api/backend/TestBackend.php
+++ b/tests/search_api_test_backend/src/Plugin/search_api/backend/TestBackend.php
@@ -66,6 +66,24 @@ class TestBackend extends BackendPluginBase {
   /**
    * {@inheritdoc}
    */
+  public function getExtraInformation() {
+    return array(
+      array(
+        'status' => 'info',
+        'label' => 'information',
+        'description' => $this->t('Just some random information')
+      ),
+      array(
+        'status' => 'warning',
+        'label' => $this->t('Server status'),
+        'description' => $this->t('The server responded slowly. Speed it up.')
+      )
+    );
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * {@inheritdoc}
+   */
   public function buildConfigurationForm(array $form, FormStateInterface $form_state) {
     $form['test'] = array(
       '#type' => 'textfield',