diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index 12a202932d7..d2e7a83ea5b 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -454,6 +454,9 @@ Release 2.1.0-beta - UNRELEASED
 
     YARN-761. TestNMClientAsync fails sometimes (Zhijie Shen via bikas)
 
+    YARN-760. NodeManager throws AvroRuntimeException on failed start.
+    (Niranjan Singh via jlowe)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HADOOP-8562 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     YARN-158. Yarn creating package-info.java must not depend on sh.
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/NodeStatusUpdaterImpl.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/NodeStatusUpdaterImpl.java
index b671a954be4..9c9994ba0ce 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/NodeStatusUpdaterImpl.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/NodeStatusUpdaterImpl.java
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Random;
 
-import org.apache.avro.AvroRuntimeException;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience.Private;
@@ -163,7 +162,9 @@ public class NodeStatusUpdaterImpl extends AbstractService implements
       super.start();
       startStatusUpdater();
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      throw new AvroRuntimeException(e);
+      String errorMessage = "Unexpected error starting NodeStatusUpdater";
+      LOG.error(errorMessage, e);
+      throw new YarnRuntimeException(e);
     }
   }
 
@@ -186,7 +187,9 @@ public class NodeStatusUpdaterImpl extends AbstractService implements
       statusUpdater.start();
       LOG.info("NodeStatusUpdater thread is reRegistered and restarted");
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      throw new AvroRuntimeException(e);
+      String errorMessage = "Unexpected error rebooting NodeStatusUpdater";
+      LOG.error(errorMessage, e);
+      throw new YarnRuntimeException(e);
     }
   }