diff --git a/bin/hbase b/bin/hbase
index 4eeb145a562..02944f9ee69 100755
--- a/bin/hbase
+++ b/bin/hbase
@@ -86,8 +86,7 @@ if [ $# = 0 ]; then
   echo "  zookeeper        run a Zookeeper server"
   echo "  rest             run an HBase REST server" 
   echo "  thrift           run the HBase Thrift server" 
-  echo "  thrift2          run the HBase Thrift2 server" 
-  echo "  avro             run an HBase Avro server" 
+  echo "  thrift2          run the HBase Thrift2 server"
   echo ""
   echo "PACKAGE MANAGEMENT"
   echo "  classpath        dump hbase CLASSPATH"
@@ -313,11 +312,6 @@ elif [ "$COMMAND" = "rest" ] ; then
   if [ "$1" != "stop" ] ; then
     HBASE_OPTS="$HBASE_OPTS $HBASE_REST_OPTS"
   fi
-elif [ "$COMMAND" = "avro" ] ; then
-  CLASS='org.apache.hadoop.hbase.avro.AvroServer'
-  if [ "$1" != "stop" ] ; then
-    HBASE_OPTS="$HBASE_OPTS $HBASE_AVRO_OPTS"
-  fi
 elif [ "$COMMAND" = "zookeeper" ] ; then
   CLASS='org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.HQuorumPeer'
   if [ "$1" != "stop" ] ; then
diff --git a/hbase-server/pom.xml b/hbase-server/pom.xml
index 54aa41b2558..768c25a4efd 100644
--- a/hbase-server/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-server/pom.xml
@@ -57,24 +57,6 @@
       </testResource>
     </testResources>
     <plugins>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
-        <artifactId>avro-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>${avro.version}</version>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>generate-avro-sources</id>
-            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>schema</goal>
-              <goal>protocol</goal>
-            </goals>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-        <configuration>
-          <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/java</outputDirectory>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
       <!-- Run with -Dmaven.test.skip.exec=true to build -tests.jar without running 
         tests (this is needed for upstream projects whose tests need this jar simply for 
         compilation) -->
@@ -252,20 +234,6 @@
                     <ignore/>
                   </action>
                 </pluginExecution>
-                <pluginExecution>
-                  <pluginExecutionFilter>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>avro-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <versionRange>[1.5.3,)</versionRange>
-                    <goals>
-                      <goal>schema</goal>
-                      <goal>protocol</goal>
-                    </goals>
-                  </pluginExecutionFilter>
-                  <action>
-                    <ignore/>
-                  </action>
-                </pluginExecution>
               </pluginExecutions>
             </lifecycleMappingMetadata>
           </configuration>
@@ -350,26 +318,6 @@
       <groupId>log4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
-      <artifactId>avro</artifactId>
-      <version>${avro.version}</version>
-      <exclusions>
-        <exclusion>
-          <groupId>com.thoughtworks.paranamer</groupId>
-          <artifactId>paranamer</artifactId>
-        </exclusion>
-        <exclusion>
-          <groupId>com.thoughtworks.paranamer</groupId>
-          <artifactId>paranamer-ant</artifactId>
-        </exclusion>
-      </exclusions>
-    </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
-      <artifactId>avro-ipc</artifactId>
-      <version>${avro.version}</version>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.zookeeper</groupId>
       <artifactId>zookeeper</artifactId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 7a8a643d1ad..13903a6f297 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@
             <!--Pass -DskipJavadoc=true or -DskipJavadoc on command-line to skip javadoc building-->
             <skip>${skipJavadoc}</skip>
             <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>
+            <excludePackageNames>org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.generated.*:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.thrift.generated:org.apache.hadoop.hbase.rest.generated</excludePackageNames>
             <debug>true</debug>
             <maxmemory>2g</maxmemory>
             <verbose>true</verbose>
@@ -481,11 +481,6 @@
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
         <!-- Build plugins -->
-        <plugin>
-          <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
-          <artifactId>avro-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>${avro.version}</version>
-        </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
           <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -797,7 +792,6 @@
     <!-- Dependencies -->
     <hadoop-two.version>2.0.0-alpha</hadoop-two.version>
     <hadoop-one.version>1.0.3</hadoop-one.version>
-    <avro.version>1.5.3</avro.version>
     <commons-cli.version>1.2</commons-cli.version>
     <commons-codec.version>1.4</commons-codec.version>
     <commons-httpclient.version>3.1</commons-httpclient.version>
@@ -1036,7 +1030,7 @@
         <artifactId>servlet-api-2.5</artifactId>
         <version>${jetty.jspapi.version}</version>
       </dependency>
-      <!-- While jackson is also a dependency of both jersey and avro, these
+      <!-- While jackson is also a dependency of jersey it
            can bring in jars from different, incompatible versions. We force
            the same version with these dependencies -->
       <dependency>