diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 2b1e04470d8..eb341fb2eb5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ Release 0.20.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-1150  HMsg carries safemode flag; remove (Nitay Joffe via Stack)
    HBASE-1232  zookeeper client wont reconnect if there is a problem (Nitay
                Joffe via Andrew Purtell)
+   HBASE-1303  Secondary index configuration prevents HBase from starting
+               (Ken Weiner via Stack)
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1089  Add count of regions on filesystem to master UI; add percentage
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/tableindexed/IndexedRegionServer.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/tableindexed/IndexedRegionServer.java
index de944002358..71fc1dd6f77 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/tableindexed/IndexedRegionServer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/tableindexed/IndexedRegionServer.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ipc.IndexedRegionInterface;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.HRegion;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.transactional.TransactionalRegionServer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.Progressable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ipc.HBaseRPCProtocolVersion;
 
 /**
  * RegionServer which maintains secondary indexes.
@@ -47,6 +48,15 @@ public class IndexedRegionServer extends TransactionalRegionServer implements
     super(serverAddress, conf);
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public long getProtocolVersion(final String protocol, final long clientVersion)
+      throws IOException {
+    if (protocol.equals(IndexedRegionInterface.class.getName())) {
+      return HBaseRPCProtocolVersion.versionID;
+    }
+    return super.getProtocolVersion(protocol, clientVersion);
+  }
+
   @Override
   protected HRegion instantiateRegion(final HRegionInfo regionInfo)
       throws IOException {