diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
index 2d83526e828..0f3d31e60dc 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
     YARN-2857. ConcurrentModificationException in ContainerLogAppender
     (Mohammad Kamrul Islam via jlowe)
 
+    YARN-2816. NM fail to start with NPE during container recovery (Zhihai Xu
+    via jlowe)
+
 Release 2.6.0 - 2014-11-18
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/NMLeveldbStateStoreService.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/NMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
index 7cf4921157c..9d5468845da 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/NMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/NMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
@@ -146,6 +146,8 @@ public class NMLeveldbStateStoreService extends NMStateStoreService {
       throws IOException {
     ArrayList<RecoveredContainerState> containers =
         new ArrayList<RecoveredContainerState>();
+    ArrayList<ContainerId> containersToRemove =
+              new ArrayList<ContainerId>();
     LeveldbIterator iter = null;
     try {
       iter = new LeveldbIterator(db);
@@ -165,7 +167,14 @@ public class NMLeveldbStateStoreService extends NMStateStoreService {
         ContainerId containerId = ConverterUtils.toContainerId(
             key.substring(CONTAINERS_KEY_PREFIX.length(), idEndPos));
         String keyPrefix = key.substring(0, idEndPos+1);
-        containers.add(loadContainerState(containerId, iter, keyPrefix));
+        RecoveredContainerState rcs = loadContainerState(containerId,
+            iter, keyPrefix);
+        // Don't load container without StartContainerRequest
+        if (rcs.startRequest != null) {
+          containers.add(rcs);
+        } else {
+          containersToRemove.add(containerId);
+        }
       }
     } catch (DBException e) {
       throw new IOException(e);
@@ -175,6 +184,19 @@ public class NMLeveldbStateStoreService extends NMStateStoreService {
       }
     }
 
+    // remove container without StartContainerRequest
+    for (ContainerId containerId : containersToRemove) {
+      LOG.warn("Remove container " + containerId +
+          " with incomplete records");
+      try {
+        removeContainer(containerId);
+        // TODO: kill and cleanup the leaked container
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        LOG.error("Unable to remove container " + containerId +
+            " in store", e);
+      }
+    }
+
     return containers;
   }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/TestNMLeveldbStateStoreService.java b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/TestNMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
index 438cec3a793..f7f43cc5aa4 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/TestNMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-nodemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/nodemanager/recovery/TestNMLeveldbStateStoreService.java
@@ -274,6 +274,13 @@ public class TestNMLeveldbStateStoreService {
     assertEquals(containerReq, rcs.getStartRequest());
     assertTrue(rcs.getDiagnostics().isEmpty());
 
+    // store a new container record without StartContainerRequest
+    ContainerId containerId1 = ContainerId.newContainerId(appAttemptId, 6);
+    stateStore.storeContainerLaunched(containerId1);
+    recoveredContainers = stateStore.loadContainersState();
+    // check whether the new container record is discarded
+    assertEquals(1, recoveredContainers.size());
+
     // launch the container, add some diagnostics, and verify recovered
     StringBuilder diags = new StringBuilder();
     stateStore.storeContainerLaunched(containerId);