diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
index e98a59d7283..22b4b92f447 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
@@ -4632,7 +4632,8 @@ public long getMissingReplOneBlocksCount() {
     return blockManager.getMissingReplOneBlocksCount();
   }
   
-  @Metric({"ExpiredHeartbeats", "Number of expired heartbeats"})
+  @Metric(value = {"ExpiredHeartbeats", "Number of expired heartbeats"},
+      type = Metric.Type.COUNTER)
   public int getExpiredHeartbeats() {
     return datanodeStatistics.getExpiredHeartbeats();
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDatanodeReport.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDatanodeReport.java
index b4d6fc99503..69dbf6438af 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDatanodeReport.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDatanodeReport.java
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs;
 
-import static org.apache.hadoop.test.MetricsAsserts.assertGauge;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.test.MetricsAsserts.assertCounter;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.test.MetricsAsserts.getMetrics;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ public void testDatanodeReport() throws Exception {
       assertReports(1, DatanodeReportType.DEAD, client, datanodes, null);
 
       Thread.sleep(5000);
-      assertGauge("ExpiredHeartbeats", 1, getMetrics("FSNamesystem"));
+      assertCounter("ExpiredHeartbeats", 1, getMetrics("FSNamesystem"));
     } finally {
       cluster.shutdown();
     }