diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index b7ac0c498d1..f74a7cf894b 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -210,6 +210,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     YARN-1454. Fixed test failure issue with TestRMRestart. (Karthik Kambatla
     via vinodkv)
 
+    YARN-1450. Fixed test failure in TestUnmanagedAMLauncher by removing its
+    dependency on distributed-shell. (Binglin Chang via vinodkv)
+
 Release 2.3.0 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/pom.xml b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/pom.xml
index a43badec533..824ab332742 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/pom.xml
@@ -71,11 +71,6 @@
       <artifactId>hadoop-mapreduce-client-core</artifactId>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
-      <artifactId>hadoop-yarn-applications-distributedshell</artifactId>
-      <scope>test</scope>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
       <artifactId>hadoop-yarn-server-tests</artifactId>
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/applications/unmanagedamlauncher/TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/applications/unmanagedamlauncher/TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.java
index 5870d472587..0cc4b8e72a8 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/applications/unmanagedamlauncher/TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-unmanaged-am-launcher/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/applications/unmanagedamlauncher/TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.java
@@ -32,7 +32,12 @@ import junit.framework.Assert;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
-import org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell;
+import org.apache.hadoop.net.NetUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.ApplicationMasterProtocol;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.protocolrecords.FinishApplicationMasterRequest;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.protocolrecords.RegisterApplicationMasterRequest;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.FinalApplicationStatus;
+import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.client.ClientRMProxy;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.conf.YarnConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.MiniYARNCluster;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
@@ -122,8 +127,6 @@ public class TestUnmanagedAMLauncher {
       LOG.fatal("JAVA_HOME not defined. Test not running.");
       return;
     }
-    // start dist-shell with 0 containers because container launch will fail if
-    // there are no dist cache resources.
     String[] args = {
         "--classpath",
         classpath,
@@ -132,9 +135,8 @@ public class TestUnmanagedAMLauncher {
         "--cmd",
         javaHome
             + "/bin/java -Xmx512m "
-            + "org.apache.hadoop.yarn.applications.distributedshell.ApplicationMaster "
-            + "--container_memory 128 --num_containers 1 --priority 0 "
-            + "--shell_command " + (Shell.WINDOWS ? "dir" : "ls") };
+            + TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.class.getCanonicalName()
+            + " success" };
 
     LOG.info("Initializing Launcher");
     UnmanagedAMLauncher launcher = new UnmanagedAMLauncher(new Configuration(
@@ -157,8 +159,6 @@ public class TestUnmanagedAMLauncher {
       LOG.fatal("JAVA_HOME not defined. Test not running.");
       return;
     }
-
-    // remove shell command to make dist-shell fail in initialization itself
     String[] args = {
         "--classpath",
         classpath,
@@ -167,8 +167,8 @@ public class TestUnmanagedAMLauncher {
         "--cmd",
         javaHome
             + "/bin/java -Xmx512m "
-            + "org.apache.hadoop.yarn.applications.distributedshell.ApplicationMaster "
-            + "--container_memory 128 --num_containers 1 --priority 0" };
+            + TestUnmanagedAMLauncher.class.getCanonicalName()
+            + " failure" };
 
     LOG.info("Initializing Launcher");
     UnmanagedAMLauncher launcher = new UnmanagedAMLauncher(new Configuration(
@@ -185,4 +185,19 @@ public class TestUnmanagedAMLauncher {
     }
   }
 
+  // provide main method so this class can act as AM
+  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
+    if (args[0].equals("success")) {
+      ApplicationMasterProtocol client = ClientRMProxy.createRMProxy(conf,
+          ApplicationMasterProtocol.class);
+      client.registerApplicationMaster(RegisterApplicationMasterRequest
+          .newInstance(NetUtils.getHostname(), -1, ""));
+      Thread.sleep(1000);
+      client.finishApplicationMaster(FinishApplicationMasterRequest
+          .newInstance(FinalApplicationStatus.SUCCEEDED, "success", null));
+      System.exit(0);
+    } else {
+      System.exit(1);
+    }
+  }
 }