diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/XAttrNotFoundException.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/XAttrNotFoundException.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d9584910bf9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/XAttrNotFoundException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/**
+ * 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.hdfs.protocol;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
+
+/**
+ * The exception that happens when you ask to get a non existing XAttr.
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Private
+@InterfaceStability.Evolving
+public class XAttrNotFoundException extends IOException {
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -6506239904158794057L;
+  public static final String DEFAULT_EXCEPTION_MSG =
+      "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.";
+  public XAttrNotFoundException() {
+    this(DEFAULT_EXCEPTION_MSG);
+  }
+  public XAttrNotFoundException(String msg) {
+    super(msg);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirXAttrOp.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirXAttrOp.java
index ce2e93c004d..3a417e72766 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirXAttrOp.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSDirXAttrOp.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.FsAction;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.XAttrHelper;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.XAttrNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.proto.HdfsProtos;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocolPB.PBHelperClient;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSDirectory.DirOp;
@@ -109,8 +110,7 @@ class FSDirXAttrOp {
       return filteredAll;
     }
     if (filteredAll == null || filteredAll.isEmpty()) {
-      throw new IOException(
-          "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.");
+      throw new XAttrNotFoundException();
     }
     List<XAttr> toGet = Lists.newArrayListWithCapacity(xAttrs.size());
     for (XAttr xAttr : xAttrs) {
@@ -124,8 +124,7 @@ class FSDirXAttrOp {
         }
       }
       if (!foundIt) {
-        throw new IOException(
-            "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.");
+        throw new XAttrNotFoundException();
       }
     }
     return toGet;
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
index 620a017de55..a14ff23a6ce 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
@@ -119,6 +119,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.SnapshotDiffReport;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.SnapshottableDirectoryStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.UnregisteredNodeException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.UnresolvedPathException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.XAttrNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.proto.ClientNamenodeProtocolProtos.ClientNamenodeProtocol;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.proto.DatanodeLifelineProtocolProtos.DatanodeLifelineProtocolService;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.proto.DatanodeProtocolProtos.DatanodeProtocolService;
@@ -520,7 +521,8 @@ public class NameNodeRpcServer implements NamenodeProtocols {
         QuotaByStorageTypeExceededException.class,
         AclException.class,
         FSLimitException.PathComponentTooLongException.class,
-        FSLimitException.MaxDirectoryItemsExceededException.class);
+        FSLimitException.MaxDirectoryItemsExceededException.class,
+        XAttrNotFoundException.class);
 
     clientRpcServer.addSuppressedLoggingExceptions(StandbyException.class,
         UnresolvedPathException.class);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/FSImageLoader.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/FSImageLoader.java
index ca4498272d1..d803f405fcf 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/FSImageLoader.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/FSImageLoader.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.AclStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.FsPermission;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.PermissionStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.XAttrHelper;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.XAttrNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.proto.HdfsProtos;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSImageFormatPBINode;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSImageFormatProtobuf;
@@ -444,8 +445,7 @@ class FSImageLoader {
         }
 
         if (!found) {
-          throw new IOException(
-              "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.");
+          throw new XAttrNotFoundException();
         }
       }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSShell.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSShell.java
index ce8694a184f..804504a65cc 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSShell.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSShell.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.RandomStringUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.XAttrNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.log4j.Level;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
@@ -3250,7 +3251,7 @@ public class TestDFSShell {
         String str = out.toString();
         assertTrue("xattr value was incorrectly returned",
           str.indexOf(
-              "getfattr: At least one of the attributes provided was not found")
+              "getfattr: " + XAttrNotFoundException.DEFAULT_EXCEPTION_MSG)
                >= 0);
         out.reset();
       }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSXAttrBaseTest.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSXAttrBaseTest.java
index 99e0698da4c..d2d0a0a5ab4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSXAttrBaseTest.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSXAttrBaseTest.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSTestUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DistributedFileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSCluster;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.XAttrNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.AccessControlException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation;
@@ -407,7 +408,7 @@ public class FSXAttrBaseTest {
       Assert.fail("expected IOException");
     } catch (IOException e) {
       GenericTestUtils.assertExceptionContains(
-          "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.", e);
+          XAttrNotFoundException.DEFAULT_EXCEPTION_MSG, e);
     }
     
     /* Throw an exception if an xattr that was requested does not exist. */
@@ -421,7 +422,7 @@ public class FSXAttrBaseTest {
         Assert.fail("expected IOException");
       } catch (IOException e) {
         GenericTestUtils.assertExceptionContains(
-            "At least one of the attributes provided was not found.", e);
+            XAttrNotFoundException.DEFAULT_EXCEPTION_MSG, e);
       }
     }