diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 4aeb6007753..a1fcb24bea0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -669,6 +669,8 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
                place; i.e. that only one enable/disable runs at a time
    HBASE-2898  MultiPut makes proper error handling impossible and leads to 
    	       corrupted data
+   HBASE-3213  If do abort of backup master will get NPE instead of graceful
+               abort
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index 2b96703eddb..efcbc3ada68 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -279,7 +279,8 @@ implements HMasterInterface, HMasterRegionInterface, MasterServices, Server {
       stopChores();
       // Wait for all the remaining region servers to report in IFF we were
       // running a cluster shutdown AND we were NOT aborting.
-      if (!this.abort && this.serverManager.isClusterShutdown()) {
+      if (!this.abort && this.serverManager != null &&
+          this.serverManager.isClusterShutdown()) {
         this.serverManager.letRegionServersShutdown();
       }
       stopServiceThreads();