diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index e70fe9381fd..a5dc6865868 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     YARN-474. Fix CapacityScheduler to trigger application-activation when
     am-resource-percent configuration is refreshed. (Zhijie Shen via vinodkv)
 
+    YARN-496. Fair scheduler configs are refreshed inconsistently in
+    reinitialize. (Sandy Ryza via tomwhite)
+
 Release 2.0.4-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
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/FairScheduler.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/FairScheduler.java
index 53cc45a382e..49226a05797 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/FairScheduler.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/FairScheduler.java
@@ -921,25 +921,25 @@ public class FairScheduler implements ResourceScheduler {
   @Override
   public synchronized void reinitialize(Configuration conf, RMContext rmContext)
       throws IOException {
+    this.conf = new FairSchedulerConfiguration(conf);
+    minimumAllocation = this.conf.getMinimumMemoryAllocation();
+    maximumAllocation = this.conf.getMaximumMemoryAllocation();
+    userAsDefaultQueue = this.conf.getUserAsDefaultQueue();
+    nodeLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdNode();
+    rackLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdRack();
+    preemptionEnabled = this.conf.getPreemptionEnabled();
+    assignMultiple = this.conf.getAssignMultiple();
+    maxAssign = this.conf.getMaxAssign();
+    sizeBasedWeight = this.conf.getSizeBasedWeight();
+    
     if (!initialized) {
-      this.conf = new FairSchedulerConfiguration(conf);
       rootMetrics = QueueMetrics.forQueue("root", null, true, conf);
       this.rmContext = rmContext;
       this.eventLog = new FairSchedulerEventLog();
       eventLog.init(this.conf);
-      minimumAllocation = this.conf.getMinimumMemoryAllocation();
-      maximumAllocation = this.conf.getMaximumMemoryAllocation();
-      userAsDefaultQueue = this.conf.getUserAsDefaultQueue();
-      nodeLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdNode();
-      rackLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdRack();
-      preemptionEnabled = this.conf.getPreemptionEnabled();
-      assignMultiple = this.conf.getAssignMultiple();
-      maxAssign = this.conf.getMaxAssign();
 
       initialized = true;
 
-      sizeBasedWeight = this.conf.getSizeBasedWeight();
-
       try {
         queueMgr.initialize();
       } catch (Exception e) {
@@ -951,14 +951,8 @@ public class FairScheduler implements ResourceScheduler {
       updateThread.setDaemon(true);
       updateThread.start();
     } else {
-      this.conf = new FairSchedulerConfiguration(conf);
-      userAsDefaultQueue = this.conf.getUserAsDefaultQueue();
-      nodeLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdNode();
-      rackLocalityThreshold = this.conf.getLocalityThresholdRack();
-      preemptionEnabled = this.conf.getPreemptionEnabled();
       try {
         queueMgr.reloadAllocs();
-
       } catch (Exception e) {
         throw new IOException("Failed to initialize FairScheduler", e);
       }
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 cf460996d8d..b41c7029ffa 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
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ public class FairSchedulerConfiguration extends Configuration {
   protected static final String  USER_AS_DEFAULT_QUEUE = CONF_PREFIX + "user-as-default-queue";
   protected static final boolean DEFAULT_USER_AS_DEFAULT_QUEUE = true;
 
-  protected static final String LOCALITY_THRESHOLD = CONF_PREFIX + "locality.threshold";
   protected static final float  DEFAULT_LOCALITY_THRESHOLD = -1.0f;
 
   /** Cluster threshold for node locality. */
@@ -89,10 +88,6 @@ public class FairSchedulerConfiguration extends Configuration {
     return getBoolean(USER_AS_DEFAULT_QUEUE, DEFAULT_USER_AS_DEFAULT_QUEUE);
   }
 
-  public float getLocalityThreshold() {
-    return getFloat(LOCALITY_THRESHOLD, DEFAULT_LOCALITY_THRESHOLD);
-  }
-
   public float getLocalityThresholdNode() {
     return getFloat(LOCALITY_THRESHOLD_NODE, DEFAULT_LOCALITY_THRESHOLD_NODE);
   }
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/TestFairScheduler.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/TestFairScheduler.java
index d7b32ec532c..709005c417d 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/TestFairScheduler.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/TestFairScheduler.java
@@ -184,6 +184,26 @@ public class TestFairScheduler {
 
   // TESTS
 
+  @Test(timeout=2000)
+  public void testLoadConfigurationOnInitialize() throws IOException {
+    Configuration conf = createConfiguration();
+    conf.setBoolean(FairSchedulerConfiguration.ASSIGN_MULTIPLE, true);
+    conf.setInt(FairSchedulerConfiguration.MAX_ASSIGN, 3);
+    conf.setBoolean(FairSchedulerConfiguration.SIZE_BASED_WEIGHT, true);
+    conf.setDouble(FairSchedulerConfiguration.LOCALITY_THRESHOLD_NODE, .5);
+    conf.setDouble(FairSchedulerConfiguration.LOCALITY_THRESHOLD_RACK, .7);
+    conf.setInt(YarnConfiguration.RM_SCHEDULER_MAXIMUM_ALLOCATION_MB, 1024);
+    conf.setInt(YarnConfiguration.RM_SCHEDULER_MINIMUM_ALLOCATION_MB, 512);
+    scheduler.reinitialize(conf, resourceManager.getRMContext());
+    Assert.assertEquals(true, scheduler.assignMultiple);
+    Assert.assertEquals(3, scheduler.maxAssign);
+    Assert.assertEquals(true, scheduler.sizeBasedWeight);
+    Assert.assertEquals(.5, scheduler.nodeLocalityThreshold, .01);
+    Assert.assertEquals(.7, scheduler.rackLocalityThreshold, .01);
+    Assert.assertEquals(1024, scheduler.getMaximumResourceCapability().getMemory());
+    Assert.assertEquals(512, scheduler.getMinimumResourceCapability().getMemory());
+  }
+  
   @Test
   public void testAggregateCapacityTracking() throws Exception {
     // Add a node