diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 13717196202..08a22d2b0a4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1733,6 +1733,9 @@ Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
     HDFS-2290. Block with corrupt replica is not getting replicated.
     (Benoy Antony via shv)
 
+    HDFS-2012. Balancer incorrectly treats nodes whose utilization equals
+    avgUtilization. (Uma Maheswara Rao G via shv)
+
 Release 0.21.1 - Unreleased
 
     HDFS-1466. TestFcHdfsSymlink relies on /tmp/test not existing. (eli)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
index 2f224409f94..cc233447c24 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
@@ -1261,12 +1261,12 @@ public class Balancer {
     return datanode.utilization > (policy.getAvgUtilization()+threshold);
   }
   
-  /* Return true if the given datanode is above average utilized
+  /* Return true if the given datanode is above or equal to average utilized
    * but not overUtilized */
   private boolean isAboveAvgUtilized(BalancerDatanode datanode) {
     final double avg = policy.getAvgUtilization();
     return (datanode.utilization <= (avg+threshold))
-        && (datanode.utilization > avg);
+        && (datanode.utilization >= avg);
   }
   
   /* Return true if the given datanode is underUtilized */