diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 81709c7201c..a3e8af1b425 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -554,6 +554,8 @@ Release 2.0.1-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-3469. start-dfs.sh will start zkfc, but stop-dfs.sh will not stop zkfc similarly.
     (Vinay via umamahesh)
+
+    HDFS-1490. TransferFSImage should timeout (Dmytro Molkov and Vinay via todd)
     
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-3042 SUBTASKS
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
index 19dccf9703a..f03de4b89a3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSConfigKeys.java
@@ -329,6 +329,10 @@ public class DFSConfigKeys extends CommonConfigurationKeys {
                                            "dfs.image.transfer.bandwidthPerSec";
   public static final long DFS_IMAGE_TRANSFER_RATE_DEFAULT = 0;  //no throttling
 
+  // Image transfer timeout
+  public static final String DFS_IMAGE_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT_KEY = "dfs.image.transfer.timeout";
+  public static final int DFS_IMAGE_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT = 60 * 1000;
+
   //Keys with no defaults
   public static final String  DFS_DATANODE_PLUGINS_KEY = "dfs.datanode.plugins";
   public static final String  DFS_DATANODE_FSDATASET_FACTORY_KEY = "dfs.datanode.fsdataset.factory";
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TransferFsImage.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TransferFsImage.java
index 665d3dbe0f6..3c05bce2870 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TransferFsImage.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TransferFsImage.java
@@ -32,9 +32,12 @@ import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.http.HttpConfig;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.SecurityUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.Time;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.HdfsConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.StorageErrorReporter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.common.Storage;
@@ -43,6 +46,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.protocol.RemoteEditLog;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.util.DataTransferThrottler;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.MD5Hash;
 
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 
 
@@ -54,6 +58,8 @@ public class TransferFsImage {
   
   public final static String CONTENT_LENGTH = "Content-Length";
   public final static String MD5_HEADER = "X-MD5-Digest";
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  static int timeout = 0;
 
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(TransferFsImage.class);
   
@@ -223,6 +229,18 @@ public class TransferFsImage {
     HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection)
       SecurityUtil.openSecureHttpConnection(url);
 
+    if (timeout <= 0) {
+      // Set the ping interval as timeout
+      Configuration conf = new HdfsConfiguration();
+      timeout = conf.getInt(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_IMAGE_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT_KEY,
+          DFSConfigKeys.DFS_IMAGE_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT);
+    }
+
+    if (timeout > 0) {
+      connection.setConnectTimeout(timeout);
+      connection.setReadTimeout(timeout);
+    }
+
     if (connection.getResponseCode() != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
       throw new HttpGetFailedException(
           "Image transfer servlet at " + url +
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestTransferFsImage.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestTransferFsImage.java
index ae3f1a9459e..cba634fee92 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestTransferFsImage.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestTransferFsImage.java
@@ -17,17 +17,27 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode;
 
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import javax.servlet.ServletException;
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
+
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSCluster;
+import org.apache.hadoop.http.HttpServer;
+import org.apache.hadoop.http.HttpServerFunctionalTest;
 import org.apache.hadoop.net.NetUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -100,4 +110,45 @@ public class TestTransferFsImage {
       cluster.shutdown();      
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Test to verify the read timeout
+   */
+  @Test(timeout = 5000)
+  public void testImageTransferTimeout() throws Exception {
+    HttpServer testServer = HttpServerFunctionalTest.createServer("hdfs");
+    try {
+      testServer.addServlet("GetImage", "/getimage", TestGetImageServlet.class);
+      testServer.start();
+      URL serverURL = HttpServerFunctionalTest.getServerURL(testServer);
+      TransferFsImage.timeout = 2000;
+      try {
+        TransferFsImage.getFileClient(serverURL.getAuthority(), "txid=1", null,
+            null, false);
+        fail("TransferImage Should fail with timeout");
+      } catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
+        assertEquals("Read should timeout", "Read timed out", e.getMessage());
+      }
+    } finally {
+      if (testServer != null) {
+        testServer.stop();
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  public static class TestGetImageServlet extends HttpServlet {
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
+
+    @Override
+    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
+        throws ServletException, IOException {
+      synchronized (this) {
+        try {
+          wait(5000);
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+          // Ignore
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }