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 119a7cd60ed..a6d4d77e752 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
@@ -1035,6 +1035,11 @@ public class HBaseTestingUtility extends HBaseCommonTestingUtility {
 
     getHBaseAdmin(); // create immediately the hbaseAdmin
     LOG.info("Minicluster is up");
+
+    // Set the hbase.fs.tmp.dir config to make sure that we have some default value. This is
+    // for tests that do not read hbase-defaults.xml
+    setHBaseFsTmpDir();
+
     return (MiniHBaseCluster)this.hbaseCluster;
   }
 
@@ -1196,6 +1201,17 @@ public class HBaseTestingUtility extends HBaseCommonTestingUtility {
     return createRootDir(false);
   }
 
+
+  private void setHBaseFsTmpDir() throws IOException {
+    String hbaseFsTmpDirInString = this.conf.get("hbase.fs.tmp.dir");
+    if (hbaseFsTmpDirInString == null) {
+      this.conf.set("hbase.fs.tmp.dir",  getDataTestDirOnTestFS("hbase-staging").toString());
+      LOG.info("Setting hbase.fs.tmp.dir to " + this.conf.get("hbase.fs.tmp.dir"));
+    } else {
+      LOG.info("The hbase.fs.tmp.dir is set to " + hbaseFsTmpDirInString);
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Flushes all caches in the mini hbase cluster
    * @throws IOException