diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 799631f484a..55e96ea39ad 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -264,6 +264,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-3180. Add socket timeouts to WebHdfsFileSystem.  (Chris Nauroth via
     szetszwo)
 
+    HDFS-4787. Create a new HdfsConfiguration before each TestDFSClientRetries
+    testcases. (Tian Hong Wang via atm)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-347 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HDFS-4353. Encapsulate connections to peers in Peer and PeerServer classes.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientRetries.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientRetries.java
index ad8443876e8..a206f76abd3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientRetries.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientRetries.java
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.util.Time;
 import org.apache.log4j.Level;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.Before;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
 import org.mockito.internal.stubbing.answers.ThrowsException;
 import org.mockito.invocation.InvocationOnMock;
@@ -107,7 +108,7 @@ public class TestDFSClientRetries {
   final static private int MIN_SLEEP_TIME = 1000;
   public static final Log LOG =
     LogFactory.getLog(TestDFSClientRetries.class.getName());
-  final static private Configuration conf = new HdfsConfiguration();
+  static private Configuration conf = null;
  
  private static class TestServer extends Server {
     private boolean sleep;
@@ -157,6 +158,11 @@ public class TestDFSClientRetries {
     }
   }
   
+  @Before
+  public void setupConf(){
+    conf = new HdfsConfiguration();
+  }
+  
   /**
    * This makes sure that when DN closes clients socket after client had
    * successfully connected earlier, the data can still be fetched.