diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index eaf7cdc94b8..6b7f83148e6 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -253,6 +253,8 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
 
     HDFS-6981. Fix DN upgrade with layout version change. (Arpit Agarwal)
 
+    HDFS-7204. balancer doesn't run as a daemon (aw)
+
 
 Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
index e88ae08e192..67e82f19880 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ shift
 
 case ${COMMAND} in
   balancer)
+    daemon="true"
     CLASS=org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer.Balancer
     hadoop_debug "Appending HADOOP_BALANCER_OPTS onto HADOOP_OPTS"
     HADOOP_OPTS="${HADOOP_OPTS} ${HADOOP_BALANCER_OPTS}"
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-balancer.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-balancer.sh
index a116502fc75..321f9c96908 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-balancer.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-balancer.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-function usage
+function hadoop_usage
 {
   echo "Usage: start-balancer.sh [--config confdir]  [-policy <policy>] [-threshold <threshold>]"
 }
@@ -42,4 +42,4 @@ fi
 
 # Start balancer daemon.
 
-exec "${bin}/hadoop-daemon.sh" --config "${HADOOP_CONF_DIR}" start balancer "$@"
+exec "${HADOOP_HDFS_HOME}/bin/hdfs" --config "${HADOOP_CONF_DIR}" --daemon start balancer "$@"
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/stop-balancer.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/stop-balancer.sh
index 718f8674369..da25d469d9e 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/stop-balancer.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/stop-balancer.sh
@@ -43,4 +43,4 @@ fi
 # Stop balancer daemon.
 # Run this on the machine where the balancer is running
 
-"${bin}/hadoop-daemon.sh" --config "${HADOOP_CONF_DIR}" stop balancer
+exec "${HADOOP_HDFS_HOME}/bin/hdfs" --config "${HADOOP_CONF_DIR}" --daemon stop balancer