diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 646b45efca0..d020009f323 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -245,6 +245,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-8482. Rename BlockInfoContiguous to BlockInfo. (Zhe Zhang via wang)
 
+    HDFS-8443. Document dfs.namenode.service.handler.count in hdfs-site.xml.
+    (J.Andreina via aajisaka)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8026. Trace FSOutputSummer#writeChecksumChunks rather than
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
index d0dd49d5e9b..bdb01b2f535 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/resources/hdfs-default.xml
@@ -602,7 +602,21 @@
 <property>
   <name>dfs.namenode.handler.count</name>
   <value>10</value>
-  <description>The number of server threads for the namenode.</description>
+  <description>The number of Namenode RPC server threads that listen to
+  requests from clients.
+  If dfs.namenode.servicerpc-address is not configured then
+  Namenode RPC server threads listen to requests from all nodes.
+  </description>
+</property>
+
+<property>
+  <name>dfs.namenode.service.handler.count</name>
+  <value>10</value>
+  <description>The number of Namenode RPC server threads that listen to
+  requests from DataNodes and from all other non-client nodes.
+  dfs.namenode.service.handler.count will be valid only if
+  dfs.namenode.servicerpc-address is configured.
+  </description>
 </property>
 
 <property>