diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index ca33282b88d..44d878180b3 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1041,6 +1041,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-12716. KerberosAuthenticator#doSpnegoSequence use incorrect class to
     determine isKeyTab in JDK8. (Xiaoyu Yao via cnauroth)
 
+    HADOOP-12849. TestSymlinkLocalFSFileSystem fails intermittently.
+    (Mingliang Liu via cnauroth)
+
 Release 2.7.3 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/SymlinkBaseTest.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/SymlinkBaseTest.java
index 007c37aa41e..a5808e6c80f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/SymlinkBaseTest.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/SymlinkBaseTest.java
@@ -1373,7 +1373,8 @@ public abstract class SymlinkBaseTest {
     long at = wrapper.getFileLinkStatus(link).getAccessTime();
     // the local file system may not support millisecond timestamps
     wrapper.setTimes(link, 2000L, 3000L);
-    assertEquals(at, wrapper.getFileLinkStatus(link).getAccessTime());
+    assertTrue("The atime of symlink should not be lesser after setTimes()",
+        wrapper.getFileLinkStatus(link).getAccessTime() >= at);
     assertEquals(2000, wrapper.getFileStatus(file).getModificationTime());
     assertEquals(3000, wrapper.getFileStatus(file).getAccessTime());
   }
@@ -1407,6 +1408,7 @@ public abstract class SymlinkBaseTest {
     } catch (IOException e) {
       // Expected
     }
-    assertEquals(at, wrapper.getFileLinkStatus(link).getAccessTime());
+    assertTrue("The atime of symlink should not be lesser after setTimes()",
+        wrapper.getFileLinkStatus(link).getAccessTime() >= at);
   }
 }