diff --git a/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/ThriftUtilities.java b/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/ThriftUtilities.java
index 72b3c1c528f..98e90f7e0cd 100644
--- a/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/ThriftUtilities.java
+++ b/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/ThriftUtilities.java
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ public class ThriftUtilities {
         .setCompressionType(comp)
         .setInMemory(in.inMemory)
         .setBlockCacheEnabled(in.blockCacheEnabled)
-        .setTimeToLive(in.timeToLive)
+        .setTimeToLive(in.timeToLive > 0 ? in.timeToLive : Integer.MAX_VALUE)
         .setBloomFilterType(bt);
     return col;
   }
diff --git a/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/generated/ColumnDescriptor.java b/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/generated/ColumnDescriptor.java
index a163bb0b12a..080c145d4e0 100644
--- a/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/generated/ColumnDescriptor.java
+++ b/hbase-thrift/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/generated/ColumnDescriptor.java
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ public class ColumnDescriptor implements org.apache.thrift.TBase<ColumnDescripto
 
     this.blockCacheEnabled = false;
 
-    this.timeToLive = -1;
+    this.timeToLive = 2147483647;
 
   }
 
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ public class ColumnDescriptor implements org.apache.thrift.TBase<ColumnDescripto
 
     this.blockCacheEnabled = false;
 
-    this.timeToLive = -1;
+    this.timeToLive = 2147483647;
 
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-thrift/src/main/resources/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift b/hbase-thrift/src/main/resources/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
index e9836cd5cc6..f4e48ff0d59 100644
--- a/hbase-thrift/src/main/resources/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
+++ b/hbase-thrift/src/main/resources/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/thrift/Hbase.thrift
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ struct ColumnDescriptor {
   6:i32 bloomFilterVectorSize = 0,
   7:i32 bloomFilterNbHashes = 0,
   8:bool blockCacheEnabled = 0,
-  9:i32 timeToLive = -1
+  9:i32 timeToLive = 0x7fffffff
 }
 
 /**