diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index a0bebede95e..57817d1d1cc 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -193,6 +193,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
 
     HDFS-3792. Fix two findbugs introduced by HDFS-3695 (todd)
 
+    HDFS-3827. TestHASafeMode#assertSafemode method should be made static.
+    (Jing Zhao via suresh)
+
 Branch-2 ( Unreleased changes )
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/TestHASafeMode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/TestHASafeMode.java
index ee704462851..f385ea43a2a 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/TestHASafeMode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/TestHASafeMode.java
@@ -420,8 +420,8 @@ public class TestHASafeMode {
     restartActive();
   }
   
-  private void assertSafeMode(NameNode nn, int safe, int total) {
-    String status = nn1.getNamesystem().getSafemode();
+  private static void assertSafeMode(NameNode nn, int safe, int total) {
+    String status = nn.getNamesystem().getSafemode();
     if (safe == total) {
       assertTrue("Bad safemode status: '" + status + "'",
           status.startsWith(