diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index cb421eee984..119ec117a44 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -202,6 +202,8 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-7863. Missing description of some methods and parameters in javadoc of
     FSDirDeleteOp. (Brahma Reddy Battula via ozawa)
 
+    HDFS-8043. NPE in MiniDFSCluster teardown. (Brahma Reddy Battula via ozawa)
+
 Release 2.7.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
index a1e0579b618..5e1560e9cb3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
@@ -1748,11 +1748,14 @@ public class MiniDFSCluster {
         nameNode = null;
       }
     }
-    if (deleteDfsDir) {
+    if (base_dir != null) {
+      if (deleteDfsDir) {
         base_dir.delete();
-    } else {
+      } else {
         base_dir.deleteOnExit();
+      }
     }
+
   }
   
   /**
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientFailover.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientFailover.java
index aa149091059..644d66d6ac9 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientFailover.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSClientFailover.java
@@ -85,7 +85,9 @@ public class TestDFSClientFailover {
   
   @After
   public void tearDownCluster() throws IOException {
-    cluster.shutdown();
+    if (cluster != null) {
+      cluster.shutdown();
+    }
   }
 
   @After