diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index aa23e7ccf72..2d89a080acf 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -579,6 +579,7 @@ Release 0.20.0 - Unreleased
                region info
    HBASE-1743  [debug tool] Add regionsInTransition list to ClusterStatus
                detailed output
+   HBASE-1772  Up the default ZK session timeout from 30seconds to 60seconds
 
   OPTIMIZATIONS
    HBASE-1412  Change values for delete column and column family in KeyValue
diff --git a/conf/hbase-default.xml b/conf/hbase-default.xml
index 99797f4475f..ca4153ca2e8 100644
--- a/conf/hbase-default.xml
+++ b/conf/hbase-default.xml
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@
   </property>
   <property>
     <name>zookeeper.session.timeout</name>
-    <value>30000</value>
+    <value>60000</value>
     <description>ZooKeeper session timeout. This option is not used by HBase
       directly, it is for the internals of ZooKeeper. HBase merely passes it in
       whenever a connection is established to ZooKeeper. It is used by ZooKeeper