diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FSDataOutputStream.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FSDataOutputStream.java
index 9a59b1d1720..cbf0460af4a 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FSDataOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FSDataOutputStream.java
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
 @InterfaceAudience.Public
 @InterfaceStability.Stable
 public class FSDataOutputStream extends DataOutputStream
-    implements Syncable, CanSetDropBehind {
+    implements Syncable, CanSetDropBehind, StreamCapabilities {
   private final OutputStream wrappedStream;
 
   private static class PositionCache extends FilterOutputStream {
@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ public class FSDataOutputStream extends DataOutputStream
     return wrappedStream;
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public boolean hasCapability(String capability) {
+    if (wrappedStream instanceof StreamCapabilities) {
+      return ((StreamCapabilities) wrappedStream).hasCapability(capability);
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   @Override  // Syncable
   @Deprecated
   public void sync() throws IOException {
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/StreamCapabilities.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/StreamCapabilities.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..65aa67988a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/StreamCapabilities.java
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.fs;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
+
+/**
+ * Interface to query streams for supported capabilities.
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Public
+@InterfaceStability.Evolving
+public interface StreamCapabilities {
+  /**
+   * Capabilities that a stream can support and be queried for.
+   */
+  enum StreamCapability {
+    /**
+     * Stream hflush capability to flush out the data in client's buffer.
+     * Streams with this capability implement {@link Syncable} and support
+     * {@link Syncable#hflush()}.
+     */
+    HFLUSH("hflush"),
+
+    /**
+     * Stream hsync capability to flush out the data in client's buffer and
+     * the disk device. Streams with this capability implement {@link Syncable}
+     * and support {@link Syncable#hsync()}.
+     */
+    HSYNC("hsync");
+
+    private final String capability;
+
+    StreamCapability(String value) {
+      this.capability = value;
+    }
+
+    public final String getValue() {
+      return capability;
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Query the stream for a specific capability.
+   *
+   * @param capability string to query the stream support for.
+   * @return True if the stream supports capability.
+   */
+  boolean hasCapability(String capability);
+}
+
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
index 09d314300a8..d608f347208 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs;
 
+import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.StreamCapabilities.StreamCapability.HFLUSH;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.StreamCapabilities.StreamCapability.HSYNC;
+
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InterruptedIOException;
@@ -33,6 +36,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSOutputSummer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileAlreadyExistsException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileEncryptionInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.ParentNotDirectoryException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StreamCapabilities;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Syncable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.FsPermission;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys;
@@ -88,7 +92,7 @@ import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
  ****************************************************************/
 @InterfaceAudience.Private
 public class DFSOutputStream extends FSOutputSummer
-    implements Syncable, CanSetDropBehind {
+    implements Syncable, CanSetDropBehind, StreamCapabilities {
   static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(DFSOutputStream.class);
   /**
    * Number of times to retry creating a file when there are transient
@@ -554,6 +558,15 @@ public class DFSOutputStream extends FSOutputSummer
     }
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public boolean hasCapability(String capability) {
+    if (capability.equalsIgnoreCase(HSYNC.getValue()) ||
+        capability.equalsIgnoreCase((HFLUSH.getValue()))) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Flush/Sync buffered data to DataNodes.
    * 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSOutputStream.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSOutputStream.java
index 52e3bb4f58d..f281a3b2120 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSOutputStream.java
@@ -17,9 +17,11 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.DataOutputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
@@ -32,8 +34,10 @@ import java.util.Random;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.CreateFlag;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSDataOutputStream;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FsTracer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StreamCapabilities.StreamCapability;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.FsPermission;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DataStreamer.LastExceptionInStreamer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.impl.DfsClientConf;
@@ -48,6 +52,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.blockmanagement.BlockManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.blockmanagement.DatanodeDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.blockmanagement.DatanodeManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.protocol.DatanodeStorage;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.GenericTestUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.PathUtils;
 import org.apache.htrace.core.SpanId;
@@ -55,6 +60,8 @@ import org.junit.AfterClass;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyBoolean;
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyLong;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
@@ -346,6 +353,24 @@ public class TestDFSOutputStream {
     verify(spyClient, times(1)).endFileLease(anyLong());
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testStreamFlush() throws Exception {
+    FileSystem fs = cluster.getFileSystem();
+    FSDataOutputStream os = fs.create(new Path("/normal-file"));
+    // Verify output stream supports hsync() and hflush().
+    assertTrue("DFSOutputStream should support hflush()!",
+        os.hasCapability(StreamCapability.HFLUSH.getValue()));
+    assertTrue("DFSOutputStream should support hsync()!",
+        os.hasCapability(StreamCapability.HSYNC.getValue()));
+    byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];
+    InputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes);
+    IOUtils.copyBytes(is, os, bytes.length);
+    os.hflush();
+    IOUtils.copyBytes(is, os, bytes.length);
+    os.hsync();
+    os.close();
+  }
+
   @AfterClass
   public static void tearDown() {
     if (cluster != null) {
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azure/SyncableDataOutputStream.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azure/SyncableDataOutputStream.java
index 58ac326ede6..b377f95b0ad 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azure/SyncableDataOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azure/SyncableDataOutputStream.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import java.io.DataOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StreamCapabilities;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Syncable;
 
 /**
@@ -30,12 +31,21 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Syncable;
  * wrapped stream passed in to the constructor. This is required
  * for HBase when wrapping a PageBlobOutputStream used as a write-ahead log.
  */
-public class SyncableDataOutputStream extends DataOutputStream implements Syncable {
+public class SyncableDataOutputStream extends DataOutputStream
+    implements Syncable, StreamCapabilities {
 
   public SyncableDataOutputStream(OutputStream out) {
     super(out);
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public boolean hasCapability(String capability) {
+    if (out instanceof StreamCapabilities) {
+      return ((StreamCapabilities) out).hasCapability(capability);
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   @Override
   @Deprecated
   public void sync() throws IOException {