diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 42272ab1692..0483d1a67fb 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1426,6 +1426,9 @@ Release 0.22.0 - 2011-11-29
 
     HADOOP-7786. Remove HDFS-specific config keys defined in FsConfig. (eli)
 
+    HADOOP-7358. Improve log levels when exceptions caught in RPC handler
+    (Todd Lipcon via shv)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-6884. Add LOG.isDebugEnabled() guard for each LOG.debug(..).
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
index 9ec09cf990e..289bee77fe7 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
@@ -1627,7 +1627,16 @@ public abstract class Server {
                   );
             }
           } catch (Throwable e) {
-            LOG.info(getName() + ", call: " + call + ", error: ", e);
+            String logMsg = getName() + ", call " + call + ": error: " + e;
+            if (e instanceof RuntimeException || e instanceof Error) {
+              // These exception types indicate something is probably wrong
+              // on the server side, as opposed to just a normal exceptional
+              // result.
+              LOG.warn(logMsg, e);
+            } else {
+              LOG.info(logMsg, e);
+            }
+
             errorClass = e.getClass().getName();
             error = StringUtils.stringifyException(e);
             // Remove redundant error class name from the beginning of the stack trace