diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 2342fd91938..5b5863986b7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1966,6 +1966,9 @@ Release 0.23.5 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-4090. getFileChecksum() result incompatible when called against
     zero-byte files. (Kihwal Lee via daryn)
 
+    HDFS-4138. BackupNode startup fails due to uninitialized edit log.
+    (Kihwal Lee via shv)
+
 Release 0.23.4 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/BackupNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/BackupNode.java
index cfc841902c2..0d93227d70c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/BackupNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/BackupNode.java
@@ -78,10 +78,6 @@ public class BackupNode extends NameNode {
   String nnHttpAddress;
   /** Checkpoint manager */
   Checkpointer checkpointManager;
-  /** ClusterID to which BackupNode belongs to */
-  String clusterId;
-  /** Block pool Id of the peer namenode of this BackupNode */
-  String blockPoolId;
   
   BackupNode(Configuration conf, NamenodeRole role) throws IOException {
     super(conf, role);
@@ -145,6 +141,7 @@ protected void initialize(Configuration conf) throws IOException {
                  CommonConfigurationKeys.FS_TRASH_INTERVAL_DEFAULT);
     NamespaceInfo nsInfo = handshake(conf);
     super.initialize(conf);
+    namesystem.setBlockPoolId(nsInfo.getBlockPoolID());
 
     if (false == namesystem.isInSafeMode()) {
       namesystem.setSafeMode(SafeModeAction.SAFEMODE_ENTER);
@@ -154,9 +151,6 @@ protected void initialize(Configuration conf) throws IOException {
     // therefore lease hard limit should never expire.
     namesystem.leaseManager.setLeasePeriod(
         HdfsConstants.LEASE_SOFTLIMIT_PERIOD, Long.MAX_VALUE);
-    
-    clusterId = nsInfo.getClusterID();
-    blockPoolId = nsInfo.getBlockPoolID();
 
     // register with the active name-node 
     registerWith(nsInfo);
@@ -219,7 +213,7 @@ void stop(boolean reportError) {
   }
   
   /* @Override */// NameNode
-  public boolean setSafeMode(@SuppressWarnings("unused") SafeModeAction action)
+  public boolean setSafeMode(SafeModeAction action)
       throws IOException {
     throw new UnsupportedActionException("setSafeMode");
   }
@@ -415,14 +409,6 @@ private static NamespaceInfo handshake(NamenodeProtocol namenode)
     return nsInfo;
   }
   
-  String getBlockPoolId() {
-    return blockPoolId;
-  }
-  
-  String getClusterId() {
-    return clusterId;
-  }
-  
   @Override
   protected NameNodeHAContext createHAContext() {
     return new BNHAContext();
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
index 106718fe2f4..e24603018b7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
@@ -3507,7 +3507,7 @@ public long getTransactionsSinceLastCheckpoint() {
   @Metric({"TransactionsSinceLastLogRoll",
       "Number of transactions since last edit log roll"})
   public long getTransactionsSinceLastLogRoll() {
-    if (isInStandbyState()) {
+    if (isInStandbyState() || !getEditLog().isSegmentOpen()) {
       return 0;
     } else {
       return getEditLog().getLastWrittenTxId() -