diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index c7c5d114283..3dd3cf8b326 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -313,6 +313,9 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
 
     HDFS-2317. Support read access to HDFS in webhdfs.  (szetszwo)
 
+    HDFS-2338. Add configuration option to enable/disable webhdfs.
+    (jitendra via szetszwo)
+
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
     HDFS-1875. MiniDFSCluster hard-codes dfs.datanode.address to localhost
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
index 82fd9fcf5b7..c10d185acfc 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@ public class DFSConfigKeys extends CommonConfigurationKeys {
   public static final int     DFS_NAMENODE_REPLICATION_PENDING_TIMEOUT_SEC_DEFAULT = -1;
   public static final String  DFS_NAMENODE_REPLICATION_MAX_STREAMS_KEY = "dfs.namenode.replication.max-streams";
   public static final int     DFS_NAMENODE_REPLICATION_MAX_STREAMS_DEFAULT = 2;
+  public static final String  DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_KEY = "dfs.webhdfs.enabled";
+  public static final boolean DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_DEFAULT = false;
   public static final String  DFS_PERMISSIONS_ENABLED_KEY = "dfs.permissions.enabled";
   public static final boolean DFS_PERMISSIONS_ENABLED_DEFAULT = true;
   public static final String  DFS_PERMISSIONS_SUPERUSERGROUP_KEY = "dfs.permissions.superusergroup";
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index d7b38c4e30f..80d8d3d86d9 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_FEDERATION_NAMESERVICES;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL_KEY;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_KEY;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_DEFAULT;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.Util.now;
 
 import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
@@ -545,10 +547,11 @@ conf, new AccessControlList(conf.get(DFS_ADMIN, " ")),
     this.infoServer.addServlet(null, "/blockScannerReport", 
                                DataBlockScanner.Servlet.class);
 
-    infoServer.addJerseyResourcePackage(
-        DatanodeWebHdfsMethods.class.getPackage().getName()
-        + ";" + Param.class.getPackage().getName(),
-        "/" + WebHdfsFileSystem.PATH_PREFIX + "/*");
+    if (conf.getBoolean(DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_KEY, DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_DEFAULT)) {
+      infoServer.addJerseyResourcePackage(DatanodeWebHdfsMethods.class
+          .getPackage().getName() + ";" + Param.class.getPackage().getName(),
+          "/" + WebHdfsFileSystem.PATH_PREFIX + "/*");
+    }
     this.infoServer.start();
   }
   
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeHttpServer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeHttpServer.java
index d8a0c500544..f9dce83fa2e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeHttpServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeHttpServer.java
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ public HttpServer run() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
               nn.getNameNodeAddress());
           httpServer.setAttribute(FSIMAGE_ATTRIBUTE_KEY, nn.getFSImage());
           httpServer.setAttribute(JspHelper.CURRENT_CONF, conf);
-          setupServlets(httpServer);
+          setupServlets(httpServer, conf);
           httpServer.start();
 
           // The web-server port can be ephemeral... ensure we have the correct
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ public InetSocketAddress getHttpAddress() {
     return httpAddress;
   }
 
-  private static void setupServlets(HttpServer httpServer) {
+  private static void setupServlets(HttpServer httpServer, Configuration conf) {
     httpServer.addInternalServlet("getDelegationToken",
         GetDelegationTokenServlet.PATH_SPEC, 
         GetDelegationTokenServlet.class, true);
@@ -182,10 +182,12 @@ private static void setupServlets(HttpServer httpServer) {
     httpServer.addInternalServlet("contentSummary", "/contentSummary/*",
         ContentSummaryServlet.class, false);
 
-    httpServer.addJerseyResourcePackage(
-        NamenodeWebHdfsMethods.class.getPackage().getName()
-        + ";" + Param.class.getPackage().getName(),
-        "/" + WebHdfsFileSystem.PATH_PREFIX + "/*");
+    if (conf.getBoolean(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_KEY,
+        DFSConfigKeys.DFS_WEBHDFS_ENABLED_DEFAULT)) {
+      httpServer.addJerseyResourcePackage(NamenodeWebHdfsMethods.class
+          .getPackage().getName() + ";" + Param.class.getPackage().getName(),
+          "/" + WebHdfsFileSystem.PATH_PREFIX + "/*");
+    }
   }
 
   public static FSImage getFsImageFromContext(ServletContext context) {