diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
index caee9333980..19c8638d2d4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
@@ -67,3 +67,5 @@ HDFS-2684. Fix up some failing unit tests on HA branch (todd)
 HDFS-2679. Add interface to query current state to HAServiceProtocol (eli via todd)
 
 HDFS-2677. Web UI should indicate the NN state. (eli via todd)
+
+HDFS-2678. When a FailoverProxyProvider is used, DFSClient should not retry connection ten times before failing over (atm via todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
index f30b58e9169..b17dc5b0f4f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ public class DFSConfigKeys extends CommonConfigurationKeys {
   public static final int     DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_SLEEPTIME_BASE_DEFAULT = 500;
   public static final String  DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_SLEEPTIME_MAX_KEY = "dfs.client.failover.sleep.max.millis";
   public static final int     DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_SLEEPTIME_MAX_DEFAULT = 15000;
+  public static final String  DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_CONNECTION_RETRIES_KEY = "dfs.client.failover.connection.retries";
+  public static final int     DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_CONNECTION_RETRIES_DEFAULT = 0;
   
   public static final String  DFS_NAMENODE_BACKUP_ADDRESS_KEY = "dfs.namenode.backup.address";
   public static final String  DFS_NAMENODE_BACKUP_ADDRESS_DEFAULT = "localhost:50100";
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider.java
index 8239c5e03b0..75cd2086843 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider.java
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configurable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.CommonConfigurationKeysPublic;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.ClientProtocol;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.retry.FailoverProxyProvider;
@@ -87,7 +89,13 @@ public class ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider implements FailoverProxyProvider,
 
   @Override
   public synchronized void setConf(Configuration conf) {
-    this.conf = conf;
+    this.conf = new Configuration(conf);
+    int maxRetries = this.conf.getInt(
+        DFSConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_CONNECTION_RETRIES_KEY,
+        DFSConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_FAILOVER_CONNECTION_RETRIES_DEFAULT);
+    this.conf.setInt(
+        CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_MAX_RETRIES_KEY,
+        maxRetries);
     try {
       ugi = UserGroupInformation.getCurrentUser();