diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RSRpcServices.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RSRpcServices.java
index 6f25ad406dd..87ff3d2ff9a 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RSRpcServices.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RSRpcServices.java
@@ -2808,10 +2808,10 @@ public class RSRpcServices implements HBaseRPCErrorHandler,
     ScanResponse.Builder builder = ScanResponse.newBuilder();
     try {
       if (request.hasScannerId()) {
-        rsh = getRegionScanner(request);
         // The downstream projects such as AsyncHBase in OpenTSDB need this value. See HBASE-18000
         // for more details.
         builder.setScannerId(request.getScannerId());
+        rsh = getRegionScanner(request);
       } else {
         rsh = newRegionScanner(request, builder);
       }