diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/recovery/FileSystemRMStateStore.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/recovery/FileSystemRMStateStore.java
index de1f65a8016..30d5d4108d4 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/recovery/FileSystemRMStateStore.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/recovery/FileSystemRMStateStore.java
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public class FileSystemRMStateStore extends RMStateStore {
   }
 
   @Override
-  protected void startInternal() throws Exception {
+  protected synchronized void startInternal() throws Exception {
     // create filesystem only now, as part of service-start. By this time, RM is
     // authenticated with kerberos so we are good to create a file-system
     // handle.