diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index a5059f87c64..69b3fa36e1f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -148,6 +148,9 @@ Release 2.3.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HADOOP-10100. MiniKDC shouldn't use apacheds-all artifact. (rkanter via tucu)
 
+    HADOOP-10107. Server.getNumOpenConnections may throw NPE. (Kihwal Lee via
+    jing9)
+
 Release 2.2.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
index c8c3403df80..76706ffa54f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
@@ -2106,6 +2106,7 @@ public abstract class Server {
     // Start the listener here and let it bind to the port
     listener = new Listener();
     this.port = listener.getAddress().getPort();    
+    connectionManager = new ConnectionManager();
     this.rpcMetrics = RpcMetrics.create(this);
     this.rpcDetailedMetrics = RpcDetailedMetrics.create(this.port);
     this.tcpNoDelay = conf.getBoolean(
@@ -2114,7 +2115,6 @@ public abstract class Server {
 
     // Create the responder here
     responder = new Responder();
-    connectionManager = new ConnectionManager();
     
     if (secretManager != null) {
       SaslRpcServer.init(conf);