diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/catalog/TestCatalogTrackerOnCluster.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/catalog/TestCatalogTrackerOnCluster.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..66c69593110
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+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/catalog/TestCatalogTrackerOnCluster.java
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright 2011 The Apache Software Foundation
+ *
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.catalog;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Abortable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseTestingUtility;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HServerAddress;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.ZooKeeperWatcher;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * Do {@link CatalogTracker} tests on running cluster.
+ */
+public class TestCatalogTrackerOnCluster {
+  private static final HBaseTestingUtility UTIL = new HBaseTestingUtility();
+  private static final Log LOG =
+    LogFactory.getLog(TestCatalogTrackerOnCluster.class);
+
+  /**
+   * @throws Exception 
+   * @see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-3445
+   */
+  @Test public void testBadOriginalRootLocation() throws Exception {
+    UTIL.getConfiguration().setInt("ipc.socket.timeout", 3000);
+    // Launch cluster so it does bootstrapping.
+    UTIL.startMiniCluster();
+    // Shutdown hbase.
+    UTIL.shutdownMiniHBaseCluster();
+    // Mess with the root location in the running zk.  Set it to be nonsense.
+    ZooKeeperWatcher zookeeper = new ZooKeeperWatcher(UTIL.getConfiguration(),
+      "Bad Root Location Writer", new Abortable() {
+        @Override
+        public void abort(String why, Throwable e) {
+          LOG.error("Abort was called on 'bad root location writer'", e);
+        }
+    });
+    HServerAddress nonsense = new HServerAddress("example.org:1234");
+    RootLocationEditor.setRootLocation(zookeeper, nonsense);
+    // Bring back up the hbase cluster.  See if it can deal with nonsense root
+    // location.
+    UTIL.startMiniHBaseCluster(1, 1);
+    UTIL.shutdownMiniCluster();
+  }
+}