diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index b02e97587fc..a2e8d46d3d1 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -125,6 +125,8 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     YARN-1181. Augment MiniYARNCluster to support HA mode (Karthik Kambatla)
 
+    YARN-546. Allow disabling the Fair Scheduler event log (Sandy Ryza)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerConfiguration.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerConfiguration.java
index ec45cca158e..e271b053737 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerConfiguration.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerConfiguration.java
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ public class FairSchedulerConfiguration extends Configuration {
 
   public static final String ALLOCATION_FILE = CONF_PREFIX + "allocation.file";
   protected static final String DEFAULT_ALLOCATION_FILE = "fair-scheduler.xml";
+  
+  /** Whether to enable the Fair Scheduler event log */
+  public static final String EVENT_LOG_ENABLED = CONF_PREFIX + "event-log-enabled";
+  public static final boolean DEFAULT_EVENT_LOG_ENABLED = false;
+
   protected static final String EVENT_LOG_DIR = "eventlog.dir";
 
   /** Whether pools can be created that were not specified in the FS configuration file
@@ -192,6 +197,10 @@ public class FairSchedulerConfiguration extends Configuration {
     return getBoolean(SIZE_BASED_WEIGHT, DEFAULT_SIZE_BASED_WEIGHT);
   }
 
+  public boolean isEventLogEnabled() {
+    return getBoolean(EVENT_LOG_ENABLED, DEFAULT_EVENT_LOG_ENABLED);
+  }
+  
   public String getEventlogDir() {
     return get(EVENT_LOG_DIR, new File(System.getProperty("hadoop.log.dir",
     		"/tmp/")).getAbsolutePath() + File.separator + "fairscheduler");
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerEventLog.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerEventLog.java
index 3f6b1e8babb..05ba330c896 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerEventLog.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/FairSchedulerEventLog.java
@@ -75,26 +75,30 @@ class FairSchedulerEventLog {
   private DailyRollingFileAppender appender;
 
   boolean init(FairSchedulerConfiguration conf) {
-    try {
-      logDir = conf.getEventlogDir();
-      File logDirFile = new File(logDir);
-      if (!logDirFile.exists()) {
-        if (!logDirFile.mkdirs()) {
-          throw new IOException(
-              "Mkdirs failed to create " + logDirFile.toString());
+    if (conf.isEventLogEnabled()) {
+      try {
+        logDir = conf.getEventlogDir();
+        File logDirFile = new File(logDir);
+        if (!logDirFile.exists()) {
+          if (!logDirFile.mkdirs()) {
+            throw new IOException(
+                "Mkdirs failed to create " + logDirFile.toString());
+          }
         }
+        String username = System.getProperty("user.name");
+        logFile = String.format("%s%shadoop-%s-fairscheduler.log",
+            logDir, File.separator, username);
+        logDisabled = false;
+        PatternLayout layout = new PatternLayout("%d{ISO8601}\t%m%n");
+        appender = new DailyRollingFileAppender(layout, logFile, "'.'yyyy-MM-dd");
+        appender.activateOptions();
+        LOG.info("Initialized fair scheduler event log, logging to " + logFile);
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        LOG.error(
+            "Failed to initialize fair scheduler event log. Disabling it.", e);
+        logDisabled = true;
       }
-      String username = System.getProperty("user.name");
-      logFile = String.format("%s%shadoop-%s-fairscheduler.log",
-          logDir, File.separator, username);
-      logDisabled = false;
-      PatternLayout layout = new PatternLayout("%d{ISO8601}\t%m%n");
-      appender = new DailyRollingFileAppender(layout, logFile, "'.'yyyy-MM-dd");
-      appender.activateOptions();
-      LOG.info("Initialized fair scheduler event log, logging to " + logFile);
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      LOG.error(
-          "Failed to initialize fair scheduler event log. Disabling it.", e);
+    } else {
       logDisabled = true;
     }
     return !(logDisabled);
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/TestFairSchedulerEventLog.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/TestFairSchedulerEventLog.java
index db777954ca7..633bca494ad 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/TestFairSchedulerEventLog.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/scheduler/fair/TestFairSchedulerEventLog.java
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ public class TestFairSchedulerEventLog {
     Configuration conf = new YarnConfiguration();
     conf.setClass(YarnConfiguration.RM_SCHEDULER, FairScheduler.class,
         ResourceScheduler.class);
-    conf.set("mapred.fairscheduler.eventlog.enabled", "true");
+    conf.set("yarn.scheduler.fair.event-log-enabled", "true");
 
     // All tests assume only one assignment per node update
     conf.set(FairSchedulerConfiguration.ASSIGN_MULTIPLE, "false");