diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index a888da2b0b1..8719849634c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -73,6 +73,9 @@ HDFS-6584: Archival Storage
 
     HDFS-6864. Archival Storage: add user documentation. (szetszwo via jing9)
 
+    HDFS-7088. Archival Storage: fix TestBalancer and
+    TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes. (szetszwo via jing9)
+
 Trunk (Unreleased)
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/NameNodeConnector.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/NameNodeConnector.java
index 9e08d510a60..d27f33f0e87 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/NameNodeConnector.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/NameNodeConnector.java
@@ -18,14 +18,16 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer;
 
 import java.io.Closeable;
-import java.io.DataOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import java.net.URI;
-import java.util.*;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
 
-import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
@@ -34,7 +36,6 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSDataOutputStream;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FsServerDefaults;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DistributedFileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.NameNodeProxies;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.AlreadyBeingCreatedException;
@@ -48,6 +49,8 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.protocol.NamespaceInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc.RemoteException;
 
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
+
 /**
  * The class provides utilities for accessing a NameNode.
  */
@@ -56,7 +59,7 @@ public class NameNodeConnector implements Closeable {
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(NameNodeConnector.class);
 
   private static final int MAX_NOT_CHANGED_ITERATIONS = 5;
-  private static boolean createIdFile = true;
+  private static boolean write2IdFile = true;
   
   /** Create {@link NameNodeConnector} for the given namenodes. */
   public static List<NameNodeConnector> newNameNodeConnectors(
@@ -88,8 +91,8 @@ public class NameNodeConnector implements Closeable {
   }
 
   @VisibleForTesting
-  public static void setCreateIdFile(boolean create) {
-    createIdFile = create;
+  public static void setWrite2IdFile(boolean write2IdFile) {
+    NameNodeConnector.write2IdFile = write2IdFile;
   }
 
   private final URI nameNodeUri;
@@ -127,8 +130,8 @@ public class NameNodeConnector implements Closeable {
     this.keyManager = new KeyManager(blockpoolID, namenode,
         defaults.getEncryptDataTransfer(), conf);
     // if it is for test, we do not create the id file
-    out = createIdFile ? checkAndMarkRunning() : null;
-    if (createIdFile && out == null) {
+    out = checkAndMarkRunning();
+    if (out == null) {
       // Exit if there is another one running.
       throw new IOException("Another " + name + " is running.");
     }
@@ -199,8 +202,10 @@ public class NameNodeConnector implements Closeable {
   private OutputStream checkAndMarkRunning() throws IOException {
     try {
       final FSDataOutputStream out = fs.create(idPath);
-      out.writeBytes(InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName());
-      out.hflush();
+      if (write2IdFile) {
+        out.writeBytes(InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName());
+        out.hflush();
+      }
       return out;
     } catch(RemoteException e) {
       if(AlreadyBeingCreatedException.class.getName().equals(e.getClassName())){
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancer.java
index 72597d2b759..dbc3212a22b 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancer.java
@@ -89,7 +89,14 @@ public class TestBalancer {
   private static final Random r = new Random();
 
   static {
+    initTestSetup();
+  }
+
+  public static void initTestSetup() {
     Dispatcher.setBlockMoveWaitTime(1000L) ;
+
+    // do not create id file since it occupies the disk space
+    NameNodeConnector.setWrite2IdFile(false);
   }
 
   static void initConf(Configuration conf) {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithHANameNodes.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithHANameNodes.java
index d9d70d1a3ce..bd9136655f6 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithHANameNodes.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithHANameNodes.java
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ public class TestBalancerWithHANameNodes {
   ClientProtocol client;
 
   static {
-    Dispatcher.setBlockMoveWaitTime(1000L);
+    TestBalancer.initTestSetup();
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes.java
index a16a9791009..6ee6e545416 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes.java
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ public class TestBalancerWithMultipleNameNodes {
   private static final Random RANDOM = new Random();
 
   static {
-    Dispatcher.setBlockMoveWaitTime(1000L) ;
+    TestBalancer.initTestSetup();
   }
 
   /** Common objects used in various methods. */
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithNodeGroup.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithNodeGroup.java
index 9961a2e2704..7af3a0e7d7d 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithNodeGroup.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/TestBalancerWithNodeGroup.java
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public class TestBalancerWithNodeGroup {
   static final int DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE = 100;
 
   static {
-    Dispatcher.setBlockMoveWaitTime(1000L) ;
+    TestBalancer.initTestSetup();
   }
 
   static Configuration createConf() {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/mover/TestStorageMover.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/mover/TestStorageMover.java
index eeea62b5b45..ad813cb7fe8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/mover/TestStorageMover.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/mover/TestStorageMover.java
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
-import org.apache.hadoop.fs.BlockLocation;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSDataInputStream;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FSDataOutputStream;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
@@ -52,7 +51,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.LocatedBlocks;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.datatransfer.DataTransferProtocol;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer.Dispatcher;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer.ExitStatus;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer.NameNodeConnector;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.balancer.TestBalancer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.blockmanagement.BlockPlacementPolicy;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.datanode.DataNode;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.datanode.DataNodeTestUtils;
@@ -99,10 +98,8 @@ public class TestStorageMover {
     HOT = DEFAULT_POLICIES.getPolicy("HOT");
     WARM = DEFAULT_POLICIES.getPolicy("WARM");
     COLD = DEFAULT_POLICIES.getPolicy("COLD");
-    Dispatcher.setBlockMoveWaitTime(1000L);
+    TestBalancer.initTestSetup();
     Dispatcher.setDelayAfterErrors(1000L);
-    // do not create id file since we will eat up all the disk space
-    NameNodeConnector.setCreateIdFile(false);
   }
 
   /**