diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 75bf88ff13c..95c82701e4e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-2683  Make it obvious in the documentation that ZooKeeper needs 
                permanent storage
    HBASE-2764  Force all Chore tasks to have a thread name
+   HBASE-2762  Add warning to master if running without append enabled
 
   NEW FEATURES
    HBASE-1961  HBase EC2 scripts
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSUtils.java
index 0feb1e32b97..5cf3481e021 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSUtils.java
@@ -601,6 +601,7 @@ public class FSUtils {
   public static void recoverFileLease(final FileSystem fs, final Path p, Configuration conf)
   throws IOException{
     if (!isAppendSupported(conf)) {
+      LOG.warn("Running on HDFS without append enabled may result in data loss");
       return;
     }
     // lease recovery not needed for local file system case.
diff --git a/src/main/resources/hbase-webapps/master/master.jsp b/src/main/resources/hbase-webapps/master/master.jsp
index 0ccc9760215..2c01d467a22 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/hbase-webapps/master/master.jsp
+++ b/src/main/resources/hbase-webapps/master/master.jsp
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
   import="org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration"
   import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes"
   import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.JvmVersion"
+  import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.FSUtils"
   import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.HMaster"
   import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants"
   import="org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.MetaRegion"
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@
 <h1 id="page_title">Master: <%=master.getMasterAddress().getHostname()%>:<%=master.getMasterAddress().getPort()%></h1>
 <p id="links_menu"><a href="/logs/">Local logs</a>, <a href="/stacks">Thread Dump</a>, <a href="/logLevel">Log Level</a></p>
 
+<!-- Various warnings that cluster admins should be aware of -->
 <% if (JvmVersion.isBadJvmVersion()) { %>
   <div class="warning">
   Your current JVM version <%= System.getProperty("java.version") %> is known to be
@@ -46,6 +48,14 @@
   for details.
   </div>
 <% } %>
+<% if (!FSUtils.isAppendSupported(conf)) { %>
+  <div class="warning">
+  You are currently running the HMaster without HDFS append support enabled.
+  This may result in data loss.
+  Please see the <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/Hbase/HdfsSyncSupport">HBase wiki</a>
+  for details.
+  </div>
+<% } %>
 
 <hr id="head_rule" />