diff --git a/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/IntegrationTestingUtility.java b/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/IntegrationTestingUtility.java
index fcda1b00a56..6309fcea118 100644
--- a/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/IntegrationTestingUtility.java
+++ b/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/IntegrationTestingUtility.java
@@ -132,7 +132,20 @@ public class IntegrationTestingUtility extends HBaseTestingUtility {
   }
 
   public void createDistributedHBaseCluster() throws IOException {
+    //if it is a distributed HBase cluster, use the conf provided by classpath
+    //to set hbase dir and fs.defaultFS.
+    //Since when the super class HBaseTestingUtility initializing, it will
+    //change hbase.rootdir to a local test dir.
+    //we use "original.defaultFS" and "original.hbase.dir" to restore them.
     Configuration conf = getConfiguration();
+    if (conf.get("original.defaultFS") != null) {
+      conf.set("fs.defaultFS", conf.get("original.defaultFS"));
+    }
+    if (conf.get("original.hbase.dir") != null) {
+      conf.set(HConstants.HBASE_DIR, conf.get("original.hbase.dir"));
+    }
+    LOG.debug("Setting " + HConstants.HBASE_DIR + " to "  + conf.get(HConstants.HBASE_DIR) +
+      " since it is a distributed cluster");
     Class<? extends ClusterManager> clusterManagerClass = conf.getClass(HBASE_CLUSTER_MANAGER_CLASS,
       DEFAULT_HBASE_CLUSTER_MANAGER_CLASS, ClusterManager.class);
     ClusterManager clusterManager = ReflectionUtils.newInstance(
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
index 5838fffbfc6..384b3cb57a4 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
@@ -304,6 +304,20 @@ public class HBaseTestingUtility extends HBaseCommonTestingUtility {
 
     // a hbase checksum verification failure will cause unit tests to fail
     ChecksumUtil.generateExceptionForChecksumFailureForTest(true);
+
+    // Save this for when setting default file:// breaks things
+    if (this.conf.get("fs.defaultFS") != null) {
+      this.conf.set("original.defaultFS", this.conf.get("fs.defaultFS"));
+    }
+    if (this.conf.get(HConstants.HBASE_DIR) != null) {
+      this.conf.set("original.hbase.dir", this.conf.get(HConstants.HBASE_DIR));
+    }
+    // Every cluster is a local cluster until we start DFS
+    // Note that conf could be null, but this.conf will not be
+    String dataTestDir = getDataTestDir().toString();
+    this.conf.set("fs.defaultFS","file:///");
+    this.conf.set(HConstants.HBASE_DIR, "file://" + dataTestDir);
+    LOG.debug("Setting " + HConstants.HBASE_DIR + " to " + dataTestDir);
   }
 
   /**