diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 3a7ff9274e5..cc6eae3ec43 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -217,6 +217,9 @@ Release 2.1.1-beta - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-5367. Local jobs all use same local working directory
     (Sandy Ryza)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-5425. Junit in TestJobHistoryServer failing in jdk 7 (Robert
+    Parker via jlowe)
+
 Release 2.1.0-beta - 2013-08-06
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
index d6f509f144c..a5e2f1794a0 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/JobHistoryServer.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.metrics2.lib.DefaultMetricsSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.metrics2.source.JvmMetrics;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.SecurityUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.service.CompositeService;
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.ExitUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.ShutdownHookManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.YarnUncaughtExceptionHandler;
@@ -139,11 +140,13 @@ public class JobHistoryServer extends CompositeService {
     return this.clientService;
   }
 
-  public static void main(String[] args) {
-    Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new YarnUncaughtExceptionHandler());
+  static JobHistoryServer launchJobHistoryServer(String[] args) {
+    Thread.
+        setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new YarnUncaughtExceptionHandler());
     StringUtils.startupShutdownMessage(JobHistoryServer.class, args, LOG);
+    JobHistoryServer jobHistoryServer = null;
     try {
-      JobHistoryServer jobHistoryServer = new JobHistoryServer();
+      jobHistoryServer = new JobHistoryServer();
       ShutdownHookManager.get().addShutdownHook(
           new CompositeServiceShutdownHook(jobHistoryServer),
           SHUTDOWN_HOOK_PRIORITY);
@@ -152,7 +155,12 @@ public class JobHistoryServer extends CompositeService {
       jobHistoryServer.start();
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       LOG.fatal("Error starting JobHistoryServer", t);
-      System.exit(-1);
+      ExitUtil.terminate(-1, "Error starting JobHistoryServer");
     }
+    return jobHistoryServer;
+  }
+
+  public static void main(String[] args) {
+    launchJobHistoryServer(args);
   }
 }
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/TestJobHistoryServer.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/TestJobHistoryServer.java
index 0a1c6382260..109601e41b5 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/TestJobHistoryServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/TestJobHistoryServer.java
@@ -63,14 +63,11 @@ public class TestJobHistoryServer {
   private static RecordFactory recordFactory = RecordFactoryProvider
           .getRecordFactory(null);
 
-
-  
   JobHistoryServer historyServer=null;
+
   // simple test init/start/stop   JobHistoryServer. Status should change.
-  
   @Test (timeout= 50000 )
   public void testStartStopServer() throws Exception {
-
     historyServer = new JobHistoryServer();
     Configuration config = new Configuration();
     historyServer.init(config);
@@ -86,15 +83,9 @@ public class TestJobHistoryServer {
     historyServer.stop();
     assertEquals(STATE.STOPPED, historyServer.getServiceState());
     assertNotNull(historyService.getClientHandler().getConnectAddress());
-
-    
-    
   }
 
-
-
   //Test reports of  JobHistoryServer. History server should get log files from  MRApp and read them
-  
   @Test (timeout= 50000 )
   public void testReports() throws Exception {
     Configuration config = new Configuration();
@@ -128,7 +119,6 @@ public class TestJobHistoryServer {
     assertEquals(1, jobs.size());
     assertEquals("job_0_0000",jobs.keySet().iterator().next().toString());
     
-    
     Task task = job.getTasks().values().iterator().next();
     TaskAttempt attempt = task.getAttempts().values().iterator().next();
 
@@ -188,14 +178,14 @@ public class TestJobHistoryServer {
     assertEquals("", diagnosticResponse.getDiagnostics(0));
 
   }
- // test main method
+
+  // test launch method
   @Test (timeout =60000)
-  public void testMainMethod() throws Exception {
+  public void testLaunch() throws Exception {
 
     ExitUtil.disableSystemExit();
     try {
-      JobHistoryServer.main(new String[0]);
-
+      historyServer = JobHistoryServer.launchJobHistoryServer(new String[0]);
     } catch (ExitUtil.ExitException e) {
       assertEquals(0,e.status);
       ExitUtil.resetFirstExitException();