diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index bdcdddf2925..28768899f17 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ Release 0.23.1 - Unreleased
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
+    MAPREDUCE-3346 [Rumen] LoggedTaskAttempt#getHostName() returns null.
+                   (amarrk)
 
     MAPREDUCE-3221. Reenabled the previously ignored test in TestSubmitJob
     and fixed bugs in it. (Devaraj K via vinodkv)
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/src/tools/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/LoggedTaskAttempt.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/src/tools/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/LoggedTaskAttempt.java
index fde7d0545eb..5437a15003c 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/src/tools/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/LoggedTaskAttempt.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/src/tools/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/LoggedTaskAttempt.java
@@ -328,11 +328,27 @@ public class LoggedTaskAttempt implements DeepCompare {
     return hostName;
   }
 
-
+  void setHostName(String hostName) {
+    this.hostName = hostName;
+  }
+  
   // hostName is saved in the format rackName/NodeName
   void setHostName(String hostName, String rackName) {
-    this.hostName = hostName == null || rackName == null ? null
-        : rackName.intern() + "/" + hostName.intern();
+    if (hostName == null || hostName.length() == 0) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("Invalid entry! Missing hostname");
+    } else if (rackName == null || rackName.length() == 0) {
+      setHostName(hostName);
+    } else {
+      // make sure that the rackname is prefixed with a '/'
+      if (!rackName.startsWith("/")) {
+        rackName = "/" + rackName;
+      }
+      // make sure that the hostname is prefixed with a '/'
+      if (!hostName.startsWith("/")) {
+        hostName = "/" + hostName;
+      }
+      setHostName(rackName.intern() + hostName.intern());
+    }
   }
 
   public long getHdfsBytesRead() {