diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 1f7bb22e750..d4f04a2fb52 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -439,6 +439,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
     HADOOP-8712. Change default hadoop.security.group.mapping to
     JniBasedUnixGroupsNetgroupMappingWithFallback (Robert Parker via todd)
 
+    HADOOP-9106. Allow configuration of IPC connect timeout.
+    (Rober Parker via suresh)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-8866. SampleQuantiles#query is O(N^2) instead of O(N). (Andrew Wang
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.java
index 5dc5e1a1c8c..3a236cbc278 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.java
@@ -173,6 +173,11 @@ public class CommonConfigurationKeysPublic {
   /** Default value for IPC_CLIENT_CONNECTION_MAXIDLETIME_KEY */
   public static final int     IPC_CLIENT_CONNECTION_MAXIDLETIME_DEFAULT = 10000; // 10s
   /** See <a href="{@docRoot}/../core-default.html">core-default.xml</a> */
+  public static final String  IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_KEY =
+    "ipc.client.connect.timeout";
+  /** Default value for IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_KEY */
+  public static final int     IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT = 20000; // 20s
+  /** See <a href="{@docRoot}/../core-default.html">core-default.xml</a> */
   public static final String  IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_MAX_RETRIES_KEY =
     "ipc.client.connect.max.retries";
   /** Default value for IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_MAX_RETRIES_KEY */
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
index f5376a33962..36ea776b777 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Client.java
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ public class Client {
 
   private SocketFactory socketFactory;           // how to create sockets
   private int refCount = 1;
+
+  private final int connectionTimeout;
   
   final static int PING_CALL_ID = -1;
   
@@ -159,7 +161,16 @@ final public static int getTimeout(Configuration conf) {
     }
     return -1;
   }
-  
+  /**
+   * set the connection timeout value in configuration
+   * 
+   * @param conf Configuration
+   * @param timeout the socket connect timeout value
+   */
+  public static final void setConnectTimeout(Configuration conf, int timeout) {
+    conf.setInt(CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_KEY, timeout);
+  }
+
   /**
    * Increment this client's reference count
    *
@@ -494,8 +505,7 @@ private synchronized void setupConnection() throws IOException {
             }
           }
           
-          // connection time out is 20s
-          NetUtils.connect(this.socket, server, 20000);
+          NetUtils.connect(this.socket, server, connectionTimeout);
           if (rpcTimeout > 0) {
             pingInterval = rpcTimeout;  // rpcTimeout overwrites pingInterval
           }
@@ -1034,6 +1044,8 @@ public Client(Class<? extends Writable> valueClass, Configuration conf,
     this.valueClass = valueClass;
     this.conf = conf;
     this.socketFactory = factory;
+    this.connectionTimeout = conf.getInt(CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_KEY,
+        CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT);
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
index 27ad539c9fa..fe2902bc597 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
@@ -573,6 +573,14 @@
   </description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>ipc.client.connect.timeout</name>
+  <value>20000</value>
+  <description>Indicates the number of milliseconds a client will wait for the 
+               socket to establish a server connection.
+  </description>
+</property>
+
 <property>
   <name>ipc.client.connect.max.retries.on.timeouts</name>
   <value>45</value>
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPC.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPC.java
index acbf32b021a..5762b56b9a0 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPC.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPC.java
@@ -62,7 +62,6 @@ public class TestIPC {
   final private static Configuration conf = new Configuration();
   final static private int PING_INTERVAL = 1000;
   final static private int MIN_SLEEP_TIME = 1000;
-
   /**
    * Flag used to turn off the fault injection behavior
    * of the various writables.
@@ -499,6 +498,26 @@ public void testIpcTimeout() throws Exception {
     client.call(new LongWritable(RANDOM.nextLong()),
         addr, null, null, 3*PING_INTERVAL+MIN_SLEEP_TIME, conf);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testIpcConnectTimeout() throws Exception {
+    // start server
+    Server server = new TestServer(1, true);
+    InetSocketAddress addr = NetUtils.getConnectAddress(server);
+    //Intentionally do not start server to get a connection timeout
+
+    // start client
+    Client.setConnectTimeout(conf, 100);
+    Client client = new Client(LongWritable.class, conf);
+    // set the rpc timeout to twice the MIN_SLEEP_TIME
+    try {
+      client.call(new LongWritable(RANDOM.nextLong()),
+              addr, null, null, MIN_SLEEP_TIME*2, conf);
+      fail("Expected an exception to have been thrown");
+    } catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
+      LOG.info("Get a SocketTimeoutException ", e);
+    }
+  }
   
   /**
    * Check that file descriptors aren't leaked by starting