diff --git a/hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 5727eaa321f..e501d1d97c2 100644
--- a/hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -596,6 +596,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HDFS-1739.  Add available volume size to the error message when datanode
     throws DiskOutOfSpaceException.  (Uma Maheswara Rao G via szetszwo)
 
+    HDFS-2144. If SNN shuts down during initialization it does not log the
+    cause. (Ravi Prakash via atm)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-1458. Improve checkpoint performance by avoiding unnecessary image
diff --git a/hdfs/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/SecondaryNameNode.java b/hdfs/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/SecondaryNameNode.java
index 6b712aee5af..b842962d3d5 100644
--- a/hdfs/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/SecondaryNameNode.java
+++ b/hdfs/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/SecondaryNameNode.java
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ public SecondaryNameNode(Configuration conf)  throws IOException {
       initialize(conf);
     } catch(IOException e) {
       shutdown();
+      LOG.fatal("Failed to start secondary namenode. ", e);
       throw e;
     }
   }