diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index bfa9aac0fa5..1b643a91d0b 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -978,6 +978,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-12088. KMSClientProvider uses equalsIgnoreCase("application/json").
     (Brahma Reddy Battula via stevel)
 
+    HADOOP-12051. ProtobufRpcEngine.invoke() should use Exception.toString()
+    over getMessage() in logging/span events. (Varun Saxena via stevel)
+
 Release 2.7.2 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtobufRpcEngine.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtobufRpcEngine.java
index e75de1581fe..cc75f5ce621 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtobufRpcEngine.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/ProtobufRpcEngine.java
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ public class ProtobufRpcEngine implements RpcEngine {
         }
         if (Trace.isTracing()) {
           traceScope.getSpan().addTimelineAnnotation(
-              "Call got exception: " + e.getMessage());
+              "Call got exception: " + e.toString());
         }
         throw new ServiceException(e);
       } finally {