diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index c53f99e4ad5..2b878dccc88 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -125,6 +125,8 @@ Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-8757. Metrics should disallow names with invalid characters
     (rchiang via rkanter)
 
+    HADOOP-11261 Set custom endpoint for S3A. (Thomas Demoor via stevel)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-11323. WritableComparator#compare keeps reference to byte array.
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/Constants.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/Constants.java
index f1b5d3df5c9..02329614690 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/Constants.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/Constants.java
@@ -28,7 +28,10 @@ public class Constants {
   // connect to s3 over ssl?
   public static final String SECURE_CONNECTIONS = "fs.s3a.connection.ssl.enabled";
   public static final boolean DEFAULT_SECURE_CONNECTIONS = true;
-  
+
+  //use a custom endpoint?
+  public static final String ENDPOINT = "fs.s3a.endpoint";
+
   // number of times we should retry errors
   public static final String MAX_ERROR_RETRIES = "fs.s3a.attempts.maximum";
   public static final int DEFAULT_MAX_ERROR_RETRIES = 10;
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/S3AFileSystem.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/S3AFileSystem.java
index e6b15577b0a..d8cf73f8f80 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/S3AFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/S3AFileSystem.java
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.Upload;
 import com.amazonaws.event.ProgressListener;
 import com.amazonaws.event.ProgressEvent;
 
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
@@ -176,6 +177,16 @@ public class S3AFileSystem extends FileSystem {
       DEFAULT_SOCKET_TIMEOUT));
 
     s3 = new AmazonS3Client(credentials, awsConf);
+    String endPoint = conf.getTrimmed(ENDPOINT,"");
+    if (!endPoint.isEmpty()) {
+      try {
+        s3.setEndpoint(endPoint);
+      } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
+        String msg = "Incorrect endpoint: "  + e.getMessage();
+        LOG.error(msg);
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException(msg, e);
+      }
+    }
 
     maxKeys = conf.getInt(MAX_PAGING_KEYS, DEFAULT_MAX_PAGING_KEYS);
     partSize = conf.getLong(MULTIPART_SIZE, DEFAULT_MULTIPART_SIZE);
@@ -262,6 +273,14 @@ public class S3AFileSystem extends FileSystem {
     return uri;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the S3 client used by this filesystem.
+   * @return AmazonS3Client
+   */
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  AmazonS3Client getAmazonS3Client() {
+    return s3;
+  }
 
   public S3AFileSystem() {
     super();
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/TestS3AConfiguration.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/TestS3AConfiguration.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e4a14d0f0b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-aws/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3a/TestS3AConfiguration.java
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.fs.s3a;
+
+import com.amazonaws.services.s3.AmazonS3Client;
+import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.rules.Timeout;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
+
+public class TestS3AConfiguration {
+  private Configuration conf;
+  private S3AFileSystem fs;
+
+  private static final Logger LOG =
+      LoggerFactory.getLogger(TestS3AConfiguration.class);
+
+  private static final String TEST_ENDPOINT = "test.fs.s3a.endpoint";
+
+  @Rule
+  public Timeout testTimeout = new Timeout(30 * 60 * 1000);
+
+  /**
+   * Test if custom endpoint is picked up.
+   * <p/>
+   * The test expects TEST_ENDPOINT to be defined in the Configuration
+   * describing the endpoint of the bucket to which TEST_FS_S3A_NAME points
+   * (f.i. "s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com" if the bucket is located in Ireland).
+   * Evidently, the bucket has to be hosted in the region denoted by the
+   * endpoint for the test to succeed.
+   * <p/>
+   * More info and the list of endpoint identifiers:
+   * http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#s3_region
+   *
+   * @throws Exception
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void TestEndpoint() throws Exception {
+    conf = new Configuration();
+    String endpoint = conf.getTrimmed(TEST_ENDPOINT, "");
+    if (endpoint.isEmpty()) {
+      LOG.warn("Custom endpoint test skipped as " + TEST_ENDPOINT + "config " +
+          "setting was not detected");
+    } else {
+      conf.set(Constants.ENDPOINT, endpoint);
+      fs = S3ATestUtils.createTestFileSystem(conf);
+      AmazonS3Client s3 = fs.getAmazonS3Client();
+      String endPointRegion = "";
+      // Differentiate handling of "s3-" and "s3." based endpoint identifiers
+      String[] endpointParts = StringUtils.split(endpoint, '.');
+      if (endpointParts.length == 3) {
+        endPointRegion = endpointParts[0].substring(3);
+      } else if (endpointParts.length == 4) {
+        endPointRegion = endpointParts[1];
+      } else {
+        fail("Unexpected endpoint");
+      }
+      assertEquals("Endpoint config setting and bucket location differ: ",
+          endPointRegion, s3.getBucketLocation(fs.getUri().getHost()));
+    }
+  }
+}