diff --git a/dev-support/hbase-personality.sh b/dev-support/hbase-personality.sh
index da960193f22..6d1b87f932d 100755
--- a/dev-support/hbase-personality.sh
+++ b/dev-support/hbase-personality.sh
@@ -179,6 +179,18 @@ function personality_modules
     if [ -n "${BUILD_ID}" ]; then
       extra="${extra} -Dbuild.id=${BUILD_ID}"
     fi
+
+    # If the set of changed files includes CommonFSUtils then add the hbase-server
+    # module to the set of modules (if not already included) to be tested
+    for f in "${CHANGED_FILES[@]}"
+    do
+      if [[ "${f}" =~ CommonFSUtils ]]; then
+        if [[ ! "${MODULES[*]}" =~ hbase-server ]] && [[ ! "${MODULES[*]}" =~ \. ]]; then
+          MODULES+=("hbase-server")
+        fi
+        break
+      fi
+    done
   fi
 
   for module in "${MODULES[@]}"; do
diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/CommonFSUtils.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/CommonFSUtils.java
index 76a3601e505..2e480e6cb7d 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/CommonFSUtils.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/CommonFSUtils.java
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ import org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 
 /**
  * Utility methods for interacting with the underlying file system.
+ * <p/>
+ * Note that {@link #setStoragePolicy(FileSystem, Path, String)} is tested in TestFSUtils and
+ * pre-commit will run the hbase-server tests if there's code change in this class. See
+ * <a href="https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-20838">HBASE-20838</a> for more details.
  */
 @InterfaceAudience.Private
 public abstract class CommonFSUtils {