diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index ff9a3713e74..2ff5bc87c53 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ Release 2.7.3 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-9669. TcpPeerServer should respect ipc.server.listen.queue.size
     (Elliot Clark via cmccabe)
 
+    HDFS-4946. Allow preferLocalNode in BlockPlacementPolicyDefault to be
+    configurable (James Kinley and Nathan Roberts via kihwal)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8845. DiskChecker should not traverse the entire tree (Chang Li via
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
index c2a5296920f..9fc68f80a17 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
@@ -621,7 +621,10 @@ public class DFSConfigKeys extends CommonConfigurationKeys {
   public static final String  DFS_WEB_AUTHENTICATION_KERBEROS_KEYTAB_KEY = "dfs.web.authentication.kerberos.keytab";
   public static final String  DFS_NAMENODE_MAX_OP_SIZE_KEY = "dfs.namenode.max.op.size";
   public static final int     DFS_NAMENODE_MAX_OP_SIZE_DEFAULT = 50 * 1024 * 1024;
-  
+  public static final String  DFS_NAMENODE_BLOCKPLACEMENTPOLICY_DEFAULT_PREFER_LOCAL_NODE_KEY =
+      "dfs.namenode.block-placement-policy.default.prefer-local-node";
+  public static final boolean  DFS_NAMENODE_BLOCKPLACEMENTPOLICY_DEFAULT_PREFER_LOCAL_NODE_DEFAULT = true;
+
   public static final String DFS_BLOCK_LOCAL_PATH_ACCESS_USER_KEY = "dfs.block.local-path-access.user";
   public static final String DFS_DOMAIN_SOCKET_PATH_KEY = "dfs.domain.socket.path";
   public static final String DFS_DOMAIN_SOCKET_PATH_DEFAULT = "";
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/blockmanagement/BlockPlacementPolicyDefault.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/blockmanagement/BlockPlacementPolicyDefault.java
index 1ed3d7d9b01..d39c68e7cfa 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/blockmanagement/BlockPlacementPolicyDefault.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/blockmanagement/BlockPlacementPolicyDefault.java
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ public class BlockPlacementPolicyDefault extends BlockPlacementPolicy {
       };
 
   protected boolean considerLoad; 
-  private boolean preferLocalNode = true;
+  private boolean preferLocalNode;
   protected NetworkTopology clusterMap;
   protected Host2NodesMap host2datanodeMap;
   private FSClusterStats stats;
@@ -94,6 +94,11 @@ public class BlockPlacementPolicyDefault extends BlockPlacementPolicy {
     this.staleInterval = conf.getLong(
         DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_STALE_DATANODE_INTERVAL_KEY, 
         DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_STALE_DATANODE_INTERVAL_DEFAULT);
+    this.preferLocalNode = conf.getBoolean(
+        DFSConfigKeys.
+            DFS_NAMENODE_BLOCKPLACEMENTPOLICY_DEFAULT_PREFER_LOCAL_NODE_KEY,
+        DFSConfigKeys.
+            DFS_NAMENODE_BLOCKPLACEMENTPOLICY_DEFAULT_PREFER_LOCAL_NODE_DEFAULT);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
index cee0d3cdfe9..0ef4bd34004 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
@@ -797,6 +797,18 @@
   </description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>dfs.namenode.block-placement-policy.default.prefer-local-node</name>
+  <value>true</value>
+  <description>Controls how the default block placement policy places
+  the first replica of a block. When true, it will prefer the node where
+  the client is running.  When false, it will prefer a node in the same rack
+  as the client. Setting to false avoids situations where entire copies of
+  large files end up on a single node, thus creating hotspots.
+  </description>
+</property>
+
+
 <property>
   <name>dfs.stream-buffer-size</name>
   <value>4096</value>