diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 2942823cbf7..559a3539a32 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1743,6 +1743,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-9788. Incompatible tag renumbering in HeartbeatResponseProto. (wang)
 
+    HDFS-9790. HDFS Balancer should exit with a proper message if upgrade is
+    not finalized. (Xiaobing Zhou via Arpit Agarwal)
+
 Release 2.7.3 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
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 8be62ac992e..60e70f49169 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
@@ -585,6 +585,8 @@ Result runOneIteration() {
       // Should not run the balancer during an unfinalized upgrade, since moved
       // blocks are not deleted on the source datanode.
       if (!runDuringUpgrade && nnc.isUpgrading()) {
+        System.err.println("Balancer exiting as upgrade is not finalized, "
+            + "please finalize the HDFS upgrade before running the balancer.");
         return newResult(ExitStatus.UNFINALIZED_UPGRADE, bytesLeftToMove, -1);
       }