diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index a6b72ae80ad..41f7507a5b1 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ Release 2.5.0 - UNRELEASED
     YARN-1868. YARN status web ui does not show correctly in IE 11.
     (Chuan Liu via cnauroth)
 
+    YARN-2103. Inconsistency between viaProto flag and initial value of 
+    SerializedExceptionProto.Builder (Binglin Chang via junping_du)
+
 Release 2.4.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/SerializedExceptionPBImpl.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/SerializedExceptionPBImpl.java
index 5290013a088..e683fd5ac59 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/SerializedExceptionPBImpl.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/SerializedExceptionPBImpl.java
@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.proto.YarnProtos.SerializedExceptionProtoOrBuilder
 
 public class SerializedExceptionPBImpl extends SerializedException {
 
-  SerializedExceptionProto proto = SerializedExceptionProto
-      .getDefaultInstance();
-  SerializedExceptionProto.Builder builder = null;
+  SerializedExceptionProto proto = null;
+  SerializedExceptionProto.Builder builder =
+      SerializedExceptionProto.newBuilder();
   boolean viaProto = false;
 
   public SerializedExceptionPBImpl() {
@@ -135,6 +135,22 @@ public class SerializedExceptionPBImpl extends SerializedException {
     return proto;
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public int hashCode() {
+    return getProto().hashCode();
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public boolean equals(Object other) {
+    if (other == null) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (other.getClass().isAssignableFrom(this.getClass())) {
+      return this.getProto().equals(this.getClass().cast(other).getProto());
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   private void maybeInitBuilder() {
     if (viaProto || builder == null) {
       builder = SerializedExceptionProto.newBuilder(proto);
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/TestSerializedExceptionPBImpl.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/TestSerializedExceptionPBImpl.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b011e3eb6d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/api/records/impl/pb/TestSerializedExceptionPBImpl.java
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/**
+ * 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.yarn.api.records.impl.pb;
+
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.impl.pb.SerializedExceptionPBImpl;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.exceptions.YarnRuntimeException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.proto.YarnProtos.SerializedExceptionProto;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class TestSerializedExceptionPBImpl {
+  @Test
+  public void testSerializedException() throws Exception {
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl orig = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl();
+    orig.init(new Exception("test exception"));
+    SerializedExceptionProto proto = orig.getProto();
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl deser = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl(proto);
+    Assert.assertEquals(orig, deser);
+    Assert.assertEquals(orig.getMessage(), deser.getMessage());
+    Assert.assertEquals(orig.getRemoteTrace(), deser.getRemoteTrace());
+    Assert.assertEquals(orig.getCause(), deser.getCause());
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testDeserialize() throws Exception {
+    Exception ex = new Exception("test exception");
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl pb = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl();
+
+    try {
+      pb.deSerialize();
+      Assert.fail("deSerialze should throw YarnRuntimeException");
+    } catch (YarnRuntimeException e) {
+      Assert.assertEquals(ClassNotFoundException.class,
+          e.getCause().getClass());
+    }
+
+    pb.init(ex);
+    Assert.assertEquals(ex.toString(), pb.deSerialize().toString());
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testBeforeInit() throws Exception {
+    SerializedExceptionProto defaultProto =
+        SerializedExceptionProto.newBuilder().build();
+
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl pb1 = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl();
+    Assert.assertNull(pb1.getCause());
+
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl pb2 = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl();
+    Assert.assertEquals(defaultProto, pb2.getProto());
+
+    SerializedExceptionPBImpl pb3 = new SerializedExceptionPBImpl();
+    Assert.assertEquals(defaultProto.getTrace(), pb3.getRemoteTrace());
+  }
+}