diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 31c887cf65f..b94c815736e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -546,6 +546,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-9012. Move o.a.h.hdfs.protocol.datatransfer.PipelineAck class to
     hadoop-hdfs-client module. (Mingliang Liu via wheat9)
 
+    HDFS-8384. Allow NN to startup if there are files having a lease but are not
+    under construction. (jing9)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8026. Trace FSOutputSummer#writeChecksumChunks rather than
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 84bb82c3dd6..4733d3e38d4 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
@@ -3181,7 +3181,10 @@ public class FSNamesystem implements Namesystem, FSNamesystemMBean,
     assert hasWriteLock();
 
     FileUnderConstructionFeature uc = pendingFile.getFileUnderConstructionFeature();
-    Preconditions.checkArgument(uc != null);
+    if (uc == null) {
+      throw new IOException("Cannot finalize file " + src
+          + " because it is not under construction");
+    }
     leaseManager.removeLease(uc.getClientName(), pendingFile);
 
     pendingFile.recordModification(latestSnapshot);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/LeaseManager.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/LeaseManager.java
index 1a1edaf14c1..7cd6f3d3c5f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/LeaseManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/LeaseManager.java
@@ -108,7 +108,11 @@ public class LeaseManager {
     long numUCBlocks = 0;
     for (Long id : getINodeIdWithLeases()) {
       final INodeFile cons = fsnamesystem.getFSDirectory().getInode(id).asFile();
-      Preconditions.checkState(cons.isUnderConstruction());
+      if (!cons.isUnderConstruction()) {
+        LOG.warn("The file " + cons.getFullPathName()
+            + " is not under construction but has lease.");
+        continue;
+      }
       BlockInfo[] blocks = cons.getBlocks();
       if(blocks == null) {
         continue;