diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 0fa946e7cf2..b227c5528b4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-6140. WebHDFS cannot create a file with spaces in the name after HA
     failover changes. (cnauroth)
 
+    HDFS-6135. In HDFS upgrade with HA setup, JournalNode cannot handle layout
+    version bump when rolling back. (jing9)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-5698 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HDFS-5717. Save FSImage header in protobuf. (Haohui Mai via jing9)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/qjournal/server/JNStorage.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/qjournal/server/JNStorage.java
index e972fe03af1..097633ed60a 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/qjournal/server/JNStorage.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/qjournal/server/JNStorage.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
@@ -27,6 +28,8 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.HdfsServerConstants.NodeType;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.HdfsServerConstants.StartupOption;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.InconsistentFSStateException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.IncorrectVersionException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.Storage;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.StorageErrorReporter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FileJournalManager;
@@ -203,6 +206,16 @@ void analyzeStorage() throws IOException {
     }
   }
 
+  @Override
+  protected void setLayoutVersion(Properties props, StorageDirectory sd)
+      throws IncorrectVersionException, InconsistentFSStateException {
+    int lv = Integer.parseInt(getProperty(props, sd, "layoutVersion"));
+    // For journal node, since it now does not decode but just scan through the
+    // edits, it can handle edits with future version in most of the cases.
+    // Thus currently we may skip the layoutVersion check here.
+    layoutVersion = lv;
+  }
+
   void checkConsistentNamespace(NamespaceInfo nsInfo)
       throws IOException {
     if (nsInfo.getNamespaceID() != getNamespaceID()) {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/common/StorageInfo.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/common/StorageInfo.java
index c87baee959c..2cb6340e50d 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/common/StorageInfo.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/common/StorageInfo.java
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ public Map<Integer, SortedSet<LayoutFeature>> getServiceLayoutFeatureMap() {
         : NameNodeLayoutVersion.FEATURES;
   }
 
-  static String getProperty(Properties props, StorageDirectory sd,
+  protected static String getProperty(Properties props, StorageDirectory sd,
       String name) throws InconsistentFSStateException {
     String property = props.getProperty(name);
     if (property == null) {