diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index f098e9148d0..749a1682443 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -738,6 +738,7 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
                and it's very confusing
    HBASE-3301  Treat java.net.SocketTimeoutException same as ConnectException
                assigning/unassigning regions
+   HBASE-3296  Newly created table ends up disabled instead of assigned
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index a09ae5241e6..634c0dc40c4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -767,18 +767,27 @@ implements HMasterInterface, HMasterRegionInterface, MasterServices, Server {
       throw new TableExistsException(tableName);
     }
     for(HRegionInfo newRegion : newRegions) {
-      // 1. Create HRegion
+
+      // 1. Set table enabling flag up in zk.
+      try {
+        assignmentManager.getZKTable().setEnabledTable(tableName);
+      } catch (KeeperException e) {
+        throw new IOException("Unable to ensure that the table will be" +
+            " enabled because of a ZooKeeper issue", e);
+      }
+
+      // 2. Create HRegion
       HRegion region = HRegion.createHRegion(newRegion,
           fileSystemManager.getRootDir(), conf);
 
-      // 2. Insert into META
+      // 3. Insert into META
       MetaEditor.addRegionToMeta(catalogTracker, region.getRegionInfo());
 
-      // 3. Close the new region to flush to disk.  Close log file too.
+      // 4. Close the new region to flush to disk.  Close log file too.
       region.close();
       region.getLog().closeAndDelete();
 
-      // 4. Trigger immediate assignment of this region
+      // 5. Trigger immediate assignment of this region
       assignmentManager.assign(region.getRegionInfo(), true);
     }