diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
index 2e8b7957a3d..0136a2923af 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
@@ -375,6 +375,10 @@ public class Get extends OperationWithAttributes
     if (this.filter != null) {
       map.put("filter", this.filter.toString());
     }
+    // add the id if set
+    if (getId() != null) {
+      map.put("id", getId());
+    }
     return map;
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Mutation.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Mutation.java
index eb5c481947d..3f32ac9cdc9 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Mutation.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Mutation.java
@@ -106,6 +106,10 @@ public abstract class Mutation extends OperationWithAttributes implements Row {
       }
     }
     map.put("totalColumns", colCount);
+    // add the id if set
+    if (getId() != null) {
+      map.put("id", getId());
+    }
     return map;
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/OperationWithAttributes.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/OperationWithAttributes.java
index 92abc287922..c6ffd99e448 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/OperationWithAttributes.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/OperationWithAttributes.java
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ public abstract class OperationWithAttributes extends Operation implements Attri
   // a opaque blob of attributes
   private Map<String, byte[]> attributes;
 
+  // used for uniquely identifying an operation
+  static public String ID_ATRIBUTE = "_operation.attributes.id";
+
   public void setAttribute(String name, byte[] value) {
     if (attributes == null && value == null) {
       return;
@@ -108,4 +111,27 @@ public abstract class OperationWithAttributes extends Operation implements Attri
       }
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * This method allows you to set an identifier on an operation. The original
+   * motivation for this was to allow the identifier to be used in slow query
+   * logging, but this could obviously be useful in other places. One use of
+   * this could be to put a class.method identifier in here to see where the
+   * slow query is coming from.
+   * @param id
+   *          id to set for the scan
+   */
+  public void setId(String id) {
+    setAttribute(ID_ATRIBUTE, Bytes.toBytes(id));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * This method allows you to retrieve the identifier for the operation if one
+   * was set.
+   * @return the id or null if not set
+   */
+  public String getId() {
+    byte[] attr = getAttribute(ID_ATRIBUTE);
+    return attr == null? null: Bytes.toString(attr);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
index 3bd9dda0424..f55dd11a8bf 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
@@ -560,6 +560,10 @@ public class Scan extends OperationWithAttributes implements Writable {
     if (this.filter != null) {
       map.put("filter", this.filter.toString());
     }
+    // add the id if set
+    if (getId() != null) {
+      map.put("id", getId());
+    }
     return map;
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestAttributes.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestAttributes.java
index 4821ceaf06a..e071b769736 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestAttributes.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestAttributes.java
@@ -154,6 +154,46 @@ public class TestAttributes {
     Assert.assertNull(del.getAttributesMap().get("attribute1"));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testGetId() {
+    Get get = new Get();
+    Assert.assertNull("Make sure id is null if unset", get.toMap().get("id"));
+    get.setId("myId");
+    Assert.assertEquals("myId", get.toMap().get("id"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testAppendId() {
+    Append append = new Append();
+    Assert.assertNull("Make sure id is null if unset", append.toMap().get("id"));
+    append.setId("myId");
+    Assert.assertEquals("myId", append.toMap().get("id"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testDeleteId() {
+    Delete delete = new Delete();
+    Assert.assertNull("Make sure id is null if unset", delete.toMap().get("id"));
+    delete.setId("myId");
+    Assert.assertEquals("myId", delete.toMap().get("id"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testPutId() {
+    Put put = new Put();
+    Assert.assertNull("Make sure id is null if unset", put.toMap().get("id"));
+    put.setId("myId");
+    Assert.assertEquals("myId", put.toMap().get("id"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testScanId() {
+    Scan scan = new Scan();
+    Assert.assertNull("Make sure id is null if unset", scan.toMap().get("id"));
+    scan.setId("myId");
+    Assert.assertEquals("myId", scan.toMap().get("id"));
+  }
+
   @org.junit.Rule
   public org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ResourceCheckerJUnitRule cu =
     new org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ResourceCheckerJUnitRule();