diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ecb5398926f..1335f71ae66 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -23,7 +23,15 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <!--To build a release I do this:
 
-    $ mvn clean site install assembly:single -Prelease
+    $ MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx2g" mvn clean site install assembly:single -Prelease
+
+
+     To build the site:
+
+    $  MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx2g" ~/bin/apache-maven-3.0.4/bin/mvn  clean  -DskipTests site
+
+
+     Use mvn3.
    -->
 
   <parent>
@@ -324,6 +332,16 @@
          can be overwritten here. -->
     <pluginManagement>
       <plugins>
+        <plugin>
+          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+          <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>${maven.site.version}</version>
+          <configuration>
+            <inputEncoding>UTF-8</inputEncoding>
+            <outputEncoding>UTF-8</outputEncoding>
+            <templateFile>src/site/site.vm</templateFile>
+          </configuration>
+        </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -378,11 +396,6 @@
             <redirectTestOutputToFile>${test.output.tofile}</redirectTestOutputToFile>
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
-        <plugin>
-          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
-          <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>2.0.1</version>
-        </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -606,7 +619,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>com.agilejava.docbkx</groupId>
         <artifactId>docbkx-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.0.13</version>
+        <version>2.0.14</version>
         <executions>
           <execution>
               <id>multipage</id>
@@ -619,7 +632,7 @@
           <sectionAutolabelMaxDepth>100</sectionAutolabelMaxDepth>
           <sectionAutolabel>true</sectionAutolabel>
           <sectionLabelIncludesComponentLabel>true</sectionLabelIncludesComponentLabel>
-          <targetDirectory>${basedir}/target/site/book/</targetDirectory>
+          <targetDirectory>${basedir}/target/site/</targetDirectory>
           <htmlStylesheet>../css/freebsd_docbook.css</htmlStylesheet>
           <htmlCustomization>src/docbkx/customization.xsl</htmlCustomization>
           <imgSrcPath>../images/</imgSrcPath>
@@ -957,6 +970,7 @@
       <plugin>
           <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
           <artifactId>findbugs-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>${maven.findbugs.version}</version>
           <configuration>
             <findbugsXmlOutput>true</findbugsXmlOutput>
             <xmlOutput>true</xmlOutput>
@@ -1003,6 +1017,9 @@
     <thrift.version>0.8.0</thrift.version>
     <zookeeper.version>3.4.3</zookeeper.version>
     <hadoop-snappy.version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</hadoop-snappy.version>
+    <maven.site.version>3.0</maven.site.version>
+    <maven.javadoc.version>2.8.1</maven.javadoc.version>
+    <maven.findbugs.version>2.4.0</maven.findbugs.version>
 
     <package.prefix>/usr</package.prefix>
     <package.conf.dir>/etc/hbase</package.conf.dir>
@@ -1371,9 +1388,11 @@
           </plugin>
 	  <plugin>
             <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
-            <version>2.6.1</version>
+            <version>${maven.javadoc.version}</version>
             <configuration>
               <docfilessubdirs>true</docfilessubdirs>
+              <excludePackageNames>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.generated.*:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.avro.generated.*:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.thrift.generated:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.rest.generated</excludePackageNames>
+              <maxmemory>2g</maxmemory>
             </configuration>
             <executions>
               <execution>
@@ -2148,7 +2167,7 @@
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.1.2</version>
+        <version>2.4</version>
         <reportSets>
           <reportSet>
             <reports>
@@ -2162,22 +2181,16 @@
             </reports>
           </reportSet>
         </reportSets>
-
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.0.1</version>
-        <configuration>
-          <inputEncoding>UTF-8</inputEncoding>
-          <outputEncoding>UTF-8</outputEncoding>
-          <templateFile>src/site/site.vm</templateFile>
-        </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.6.1</version>
+        <version>${maven.javadoc.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <docfilessubdirs>true</docfilessubdirs>
+              <excludePackageNames>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.generated.*:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.avro.generated.*:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.thrift.generated:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.rest.generated</excludePackageNames>
+              <debug>true</debug>
+              <maxmemory>2g</maxmemory>
+              <verbose>true</verbose>
         </configuration>
         <reportSets>
           <reportSet>
@@ -2187,11 +2200,6 @@
             </reports>
           </reportSet>
         </reportSets>
-        <!--
-          This is probably not needed, given the smallness of the HBase source code, but left here in case
-          <minmemory>128m</minmemory>
-          <maxmemory>1024m</maxmemory>
-        -->
       </plugin>
       <!--Disabled for now.
       <plugin>
@@ -2243,12 +2251,12 @@
         <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.1</version>
       </plugin>
-      -->
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.rat</groupId>
         <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>0.8</version>
       </plugin>
+      -->
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-surefire-report-plugin</artifactId>
diff --git a/src/site/resources/css/site.css b/src/site/resources/css/site.css
index 7978259ab98..f26d03c39b5 100644
--- a/src/site/resources/css/site.css
+++ b/src/site/resources/css/site.css
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@ h4 {
   background-repeat: repeat-x;
 }
 
+.section {
+  padding-bottom: 0;
+  padding-top: 0;
+}
+
 /*
 #leftColumn {
   display: none !important