diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index de05e6383d8..ba788c079de 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@ Release 2.7.4 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-10534. NameNode WebUI should display DataNode usage histogram.
     (Kai Sasaki via zhz)
 
+    HDFS-11333. Print a user friendly error message when plugins are not found. (Wei-Chiu Chuang)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-10896. Move lock logging logic from FSNamesystem into FSNamesystemLock.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index 9ba64b4b213..12b3c9fdae0 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -769,7 +769,15 @@ public class DataNode extends ReconfigurableBase
   }
 
   private void startPlugins(Configuration conf) {
-    plugins = conf.getInstances(DFS_DATANODE_PLUGINS_KEY, ServicePlugin.class);
+    try {
+      plugins = conf.getInstances(DFS_DATANODE_PLUGINS_KEY,
+          ServicePlugin.class);
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      String pluginsValue = conf.get(DFS_DATANODE_PLUGINS_KEY);
+      LOG.error("Unable to load DataNode plugins. Specified list of plugins: " +
+          pluginsValue, e);
+      throw e;
+    }
     for (ServicePlugin p: plugins) {
       try {
         p.start(this);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
index 5bac79cf1a5..b90be7c8d15 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
@@ -684,8 +684,15 @@ public class NameNode implements NameNodeStatusMXBean {
       httpServer.setFSImage(getFSImage());
     }
     rpcServer.start();
-    plugins = conf.getInstances(DFS_NAMENODE_PLUGINS_KEY,
-        ServicePlugin.class);
+    try {
+      plugins = conf.getInstances(DFS_NAMENODE_PLUGINS_KEY,
+          ServicePlugin.class);
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      String pluginsValue = conf.get(DFS_NAMENODE_PLUGINS_KEY);
+      LOG.error("Unable to load NameNode plugins. Specified list of plugins: " +
+          pluginsValue, e);
+      throw e;
+    }
     for (ServicePlugin p: plugins) {
       try {
         p.start(this);