diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 967f4684755..6428218109a 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -306,6 +306,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
     HDFS-4236. Remove artificial limit on username length introduced in
     HDFS-4171. (tucu via suresh)
 
+    HDFS-4279. NameNode does not initialize generic conf keys when started
+    with -recover. (Colin Patrick McCabe via atm)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-3077 SUBTASKS
 
     HDFS-3077. Quorum-based protocol for reading and writing edit logs.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
index fc85428023d..d578c0e7dd1 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
@@ -1052,6 +1052,9 @@ public class NameNode {
 
   private static void doRecovery(StartupOption startOpt, Configuration conf)
       throws IOException {
+    String nsId = DFSUtil.getNamenodeNameServiceId(conf);
+    String namenodeId = HAUtil.getNameNodeId(conf, nsId);
+    initializeGenericKeys(conf, nsId, namenodeId);
     if (startOpt.getForce() < MetaRecoveryContext.FORCE_ALL) {
       if (!confirmPrompt("You have selected Metadata Recovery mode.  " +
           "This mode is intended to recover lost metadata on a corrupt " +
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
index 8379cb2332b..5f18ee4236b 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestNameNodeRecovery.java
@@ -30,11 +30,16 @@ import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Set;
 
+import junit.framework.Assert;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSCluster;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.HdfsServerConstants.StartupOption;
@@ -432,6 +437,39 @@ public class TestNameNodeRecovery {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Create a test configuration that will exercise the initializeGenericKeys
+   * code path.  This is a regression test for HDFS-4279.
+   */
+  static void setupRecoveryTestConf(Configuration conf) throws IOException {
+    conf.set(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMESERVICES, "ns1");
+    conf.set(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_HA_NAMENODE_ID_KEY, "nn1");
+    conf.set(DFSUtil.addKeySuffixes(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_HA_NAMENODES_KEY_PREFIX,
+      "ns1"), "nn1,nn2");
+    String baseDir = System.getProperty(
+        MiniDFSCluster.PROP_TEST_BUILD_DATA, "build/test/data") + "/dfs/";
+    File nameDir = new File(baseDir, "nameR");
+    File secondaryDir = new File(baseDir, "namesecondaryR");
+    conf.set(DFSUtil.addKeySuffixes(DFSConfigKeys.
+        DFS_NAMENODE_NAME_DIR_KEY, "ns1", "nn1"),
+        nameDir.getCanonicalPath());
+    conf.set(DFSUtil.addKeySuffixes(DFSConfigKeys.
+        DFS_NAMENODE_CHECKPOINT_DIR_KEY, "ns1", "nn1"),
+        secondaryDir.getCanonicalPath());
+    conf.unset(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_NAME_DIR_KEY);
+    conf.unset(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_CHECKPOINT_DIR_KEY);
+    FileUtils.deleteQuietly(nameDir);
+    if (!nameDir.mkdirs()) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("failed to make directory " +
+        nameDir.getAbsolutePath());
+    }
+    FileUtils.deleteQuietly(secondaryDir);
+    if (!secondaryDir.mkdirs()) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("failed to make directory " +
+        secondaryDir.getAbsolutePath());
+    }
+  }
+
   static void testNameNodeRecoveryImpl(Corruptor corruptor, boolean finalize)
       throws IOException {
     final String TEST_PATH = "/test/path/dir";
@@ -440,12 +478,13 @@ public class TestNameNodeRecovery {
 
     // start a cluster
     Configuration conf = new HdfsConfiguration();
+    setupRecoveryTestConf(conf);
     MiniDFSCluster cluster = null;
     FileSystem fileSys = null;
     StorageDirectory sd = null;
     try {
       cluster = new MiniDFSCluster.Builder(conf).numDataNodes(0)
-          .enableManagedDfsDirsRedundancy(false).build();
+          .manageNameDfsDirs(false).build();
       cluster.waitActive();
       if (!finalize) {
         // Normally, the in-progress edit log would be finalized by