diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index 82d4fa61c91..9bb96d1cc6e 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -68,6 +68,9 @@ Release 2.7.1 - UNRELEASED
     YARN-3358. Audit log not present while refreshing Service ACLs. 
     (Varun Saxena via devaraj)
 
+    YARN-3554. Default value for maximum nodemanager connect wait time is too
+    high (Naganarasimha G R via jlowe)
+
 Release 2.7.0 - 2015-04-20
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-api/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/conf/YarnConfiguration.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-api/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/conf/YarnConfiguration.java
index f6ebb511e62..d9be06a70c1 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-api/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/conf/YarnConfiguration.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-api/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/conf/YarnConfiguration.java
@@ -1687,7 +1687,7 @@ private static void addDeprecatedKeys() {
   public static final String CLIENT_NM_CONNECT_MAX_WAIT_MS =
       YARN_PREFIX + "client.nodemanager-connect.max-wait-ms";
   public static final long DEFAULT_CLIENT_NM_CONNECT_MAX_WAIT_MS =
-      15 * 60 * 1000;
+      3 * 60 * 1000;
 
   /** Time interval between each attempt to connect to NM */
   public static final String CLIENT_NM_CONNECT_RETRY_INTERVAL_MS =
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/resources/yarn-default.xml b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/resources/yarn-default.xml
index 66400c8831f..5d0f07d8f5d 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/resources/yarn-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/resources/yarn-default.xml
@@ -1138,7 +1138,7 @@
   <property>
     <description>Max time to wait to establish a connection to NM</description>
     <name>yarn.client.nodemanager-connect.max-wait-ms</name>
-    <value>900000</value>
+    <value>180000</value>
   </property>
 
   <property>