diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/DFSZKFailoverController.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/DFSZKFailoverController.java
index 96723da7c70..be17f24d757 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/DFSZKFailoverController.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/DFSZKFailoverController.java
@@ -189,9 +189,9 @@ public static void main(String args[])
     
     GenericOptionsParser parser = new GenericOptionsParser(
         new HdfsConfiguration(), args);
-    DFSZKFailoverController zkfc = DFSZKFailoverController.create(
-        parser.getConfiguration());
     try {
+      DFSZKFailoverController zkfc = DFSZKFailoverController.create(
+          parser.getConfiguration());
       System.exit(zkfc.run(parser.getRemainingArgs()));
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       LOG.error("DFSZKFailOverController exiting due to earlier exception "