diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 2b7ed400a1d..35f70ec1446 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -408,6 +408,7 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
                (Benoit Sigoure via JD)
    HBASE-2282  More directories should be ignored when using git for development
                (Alexey Kovyrin via Stack)
+    HBASE-2267 More improvements to the Maven build (Lars Francke via Stack)
 
   NEW FEATURES
    HBASE-1961  HBase EC2 scripts
diff --git a/contrib/pom.xml b/contrib/pom.xml
index 4b439c6d9e4..617ba935b33 100644
--- a/contrib/pom.xml
+++ b/contrib/pom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
-  <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
   <artifactId>hbase-contrib</artifactId>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
   <name>HBase Contrib</name>
diff --git a/contrib/stargate/pom.xml b/contrib/stargate/pom.xml
index fad6effd7d6..16e201e4d79 100644
--- a/contrib/stargate/pom.xml
+++ b/contrib/stargate/pom.xml
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
     <jsr311.version>1.1.1</jsr311.version>
     <protobuf.version>2.3.0</protobuf.version>
     <jersey.version>1.1.4.1</jersey.version>
+    <json.version>20090211</json.version>
+    <hsqldb.version>1.8.0.10</hsqldb.version>
   </properties>
 
   <build>
@@ -72,13 +74,13 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.json</groupId>
       <artifactId>json</artifactId>
-      <version>20090211</version>
+      <version>${json.version}</version>
     </dependency>
-    <!-- we only use this for TestJDBCAuthenticator -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>hsqldb</groupId>
       <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
-      <version>1.8.0.10</version>
+      <version>${hsqldb.version}</version>
+      <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/contrib/transactional/pom.xml b/contrib/transactional/pom.xml
index 4c9e09511bc..14a4b96b3eb 100644
--- a/contrib/transactional/pom.xml
+++ b/contrib/transactional/pom.xml
@@ -13,6 +13,18 @@
     <version>0.21.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   </parent>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+        <configuration>
+          <forkMode>always</forkMode>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
@@ -23,6 +35,10 @@
       <artifactId>hbase-core</artifactId>
       <classifier>tests</classifier>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
+      <artifactId>hadoop-core-test</artifactId>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
       <artifactId>hadoop-hdfs-test</artifactId>
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/overview.html b/core/src/main/javadoc/overview.html
similarity index 100%
rename from core/src/main/resources/overview.html
rename to core/src/main/javadoc/overview.html
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/webapps/master/WEB-INF/web.xml b/core/src/main/resources/webapps/master/WEB-INF/web.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index c762a2bf921..00000000000
--- a/core/src/main/resources/webapps/master/WEB-INF/web.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
-
-<!DOCTYPE web-app
-    PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
-    "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">
-<!--
-Automatically created by Apache Jakarta Tomcat JspC.
--->
-<web-app>
-
-
-    <servlet>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.master_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <servlet-class>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.master_jsp</servlet-class>
-    </servlet>
-
-    <servlet>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.table_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <servlet-class>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.table_jsp</servlet-class>
-    </servlet>
-
-    <servlet>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.zk_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <servlet-class>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.zk_jsp</servlet-class>
-    </servlet>
-
-    <servlet-mapping>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.master_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <url-pattern>/master.jsp</url-pattern>
-    </servlet-mapping>
-
-    <servlet-mapping>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.table_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <url-pattern>/table.jsp</url-pattern>
-    </servlet-mapping>
-
-    <servlet-mapping>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.master.zk_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <url-pattern>/zk.jsp</url-pattern>
-    </servlet-mapping>
-
-</web-app>
-
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/webapps/regionserver/WEB-INF/web.xml b/core/src/main/resources/webapps/regionserver/WEB-INF/web.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 37a242c7811..00000000000
--- a/core/src/main/resources/webapps/regionserver/WEB-INF/web.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
-
-<!DOCTYPE web-app
-    PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
-    "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">
-<!--
-Automatically created by Apache Jakarta Tomcat JspC.
--->
-<web-app>
-
-
-    <servlet>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.regionserver.regionserver_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <servlet-class>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.regionserver.regionserver_jsp</servlet-class>
-    </servlet>
-
-    <servlet-mapping>
-        <servlet-name>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.generated.regionserver.regionserver_jsp</servlet-name>
-        <url-pattern>/regionserver.jsp</url-pattern>
-    </servlet-mapping>
-
-</web-app>
-
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index f39412c2176..84e00cb4486 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@
     <developer>
       <id>larsgeorge</id>
       <name>Lars George</name>
-      <email>lars.george@gmail.com</email>
+      <email>larsgeorge@apache.org</email>
       <timezone>+1</timezone>
       <organization>WorldLingo</organization>
       <organizationUrl>http://www.worldlingo.com/</organizationUrl>
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@
     <thrift.version>0.2.0</thrift.version>
     <jruby.version>1.4.0</jruby.version>
     <slf4j.version>1.5.8</slf4j.version>
+    <jopt.version>3.2</jopt.version>
   </properties>
 
   <repositories>
@@ -225,10 +226,6 @@
   </repositories>
 
   <build>
-    <directory>target</directory>
-    <outputDirectory>target/classes</outputDirectory>
-    <finalName>${artifactId}-${version}</finalName>
-
     <!-- Some plugins (javadoc for example) can be used in the normal build- and the site phase.
          These plugins inherit their options from the <reporting> section below. These settings
          can be overwritten here. -->
@@ -260,6 +257,7 @@
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>2.5</version>
           <configuration>
+            <forkedProcessTimeoutInSeconds>3600</forkedProcessTimeoutInSeconds>
             <argLine>-Xmx512m</argLine>
             <redirectTestOutputToFile>true</redirectTestOutputToFile>
           </configuration>
@@ -268,6 +266,10 @@
           <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>2.6.1</version>
         </plugin>
+        <plugin>
+          <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>2.4</version>
+        </plugin>
       </plugins>
     </pluginManagement>
 
@@ -330,6 +332,11 @@
         <version>${hadoop-mapred.version}</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
       </dependency>
+      <dependency>
+        <groupId>net.sf.jopt-simple</groupId>
+        <artifactId>jopt-simple</artifactId>
+        <version>${jopt.version}</version>
+      </dependency>
     </dependencies>
   </dependencyManagement>
 
@@ -352,10 +359,14 @@
   <!-- See http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MSITE-443 why the settings need to be here and not in pluginManagement. -->
   <reporting>
     <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.1.2</version>
+      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.3</version>
+        <version>2.4</version>
         <configuration>
           <targetJdk>${compileSource}</targetJdk>
         </configuration>
@@ -363,14 +374,16 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.5</version>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
         <artifactId>findbugs-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.3</version>
+        <version>2.3.1</version>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.1</version>
         <configuration>
           <inputEncoding>UTF-8</inputEncoding>
           <outputEncoding>UTF-8</outputEncoding>
@@ -391,17 +404,21 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
         <artifactId>cobertura-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.3</version>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-jxr-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.1</version>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
         <artifactId>jdepend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.0-beta-2</version>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-changes-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.3</version>
         <configuration>
           <issueLinkTemplate>%URL%/browse/%ISSUE%</issueLinkTemplate>
         </configuration>
@@ -413,6 +430,24 @@
           </reportSet>
         </reportSets>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>com.atlassian.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-clover2-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.6.3</version>
+      </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-surefire-report-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.5</version>
+      </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+        <artifactId>taglist-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.4</version>
+      </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.1</version>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </reporting>
 </project>
diff --git a/src/assembly/bin.xml b/src/assembly/bin.xml
index 246fd0a825e..42508fdc215 100644
--- a/src/assembly/bin.xml
+++ b/src/assembly/bin.xml
@@ -44,6 +44,15 @@
         <unpack>false</unpack>
       </binaries>
     </moduleSet>
+    <moduleSet>
+      <includes>
+        <include>org.apache.hbase:hbase-contrib-mdc_replication</include>
+      </includes>
+      <binaries>
+        <outputDirectory>contrib/mdc_replication/</outputDirectory>
+        <unpack>false</unpack>
+      </binaries>
+    </moduleSet>
     <moduleSet>
       <includes>
         <include>org.apache.hbase:hbase-contrib-stargate</include>