diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0621f116fbb..9b02bc0751c 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-1921  When the Master's session times out and there's only one, cluster is wedged
    HBASE-1942  Update hadoop jars in trunk; update to r831142
    HBASE-1943  Remove AgileJSON; unused
+   HBASE-1944  Add a "deferred log flush" attribute to HTD
 
   OPTIMIZATIONS
    HBASE-410   [testing] Speed up the test suite
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
index 5aca9417b5a..b871e8439bb 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ public class HTableDescriptor implements WritableComparable<HTableDescriptor> {
   public static final ImmutableBytesWritable IS_META_KEY =
     new ImmutableBytesWritable(Bytes.toBytes(IS_META));
 
+  public static final String DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH = "DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH";
+  public static final ImmutableBytesWritable DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH_KEY =
+    new ImmutableBytesWritable(Bytes.toBytes(DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH));
+
 
   // The below are ugly but better than creating them each time till we
   // replace booleans being saved as Strings with plain booleans.  Need a
@@ -89,6 +93,8 @@ public class HTableDescriptor implements WritableComparable<HTableDescriptor> {
   public static final int DEFAULT_MEMSTORE_FLUSH_SIZE = 1024*1024*64;
   
   public static final int DEFAULT_MAX_FILESIZE = 1024*1024*256;
+
+  public static final boolean DEFAULT_DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH = false;
     
   private volatile Boolean meta = null;
   private volatile Boolean root = null;
@@ -366,6 +372,21 @@ public class HTableDescriptor implements WritableComparable<HTableDescriptor> {
     setValue(READONLY_KEY, readOnly? TRUE: FALSE);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @return true if that table's log is hflush by other means
+   */
+  public boolean isDeferredLogFlush() {
+    return isSomething(DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH_KEY, DEFAULT_DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @param isDeferredLogFlush true if that table's log is hlfush by oter means
+   * only.
+   */
+  public void setDeferredLogFlush(final boolean isDeferredLogFlush) {
+    setValue(DEFERRED_LOG_FLUSH_KEY, isDeferredLogFlush? TRUE: FALSE);
+  }
+
   /** @return name of table */
   public byte [] getName() {
     return name;
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
index 084311844b5..10fcbbf51ae 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
@@ -1655,7 +1655,7 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
       cacheFlusher.reclaimMemStoreMemory();
       region.put(put, getLockFromId(put.getLockId()));
 
-      this.hlog.sync(region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion());
+      this.syncWal(region);
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       throw convertThrowableToIOE(cleanup(t));
     }
@@ -1666,11 +1666,9 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
     // Count of Puts processed.
     int i = 0;
     checkOpen();
-    boolean isMetaRegion = false;
+    HRegion region = null;
     try {
-      HRegion region = getRegion(regionName);
-      isMetaRegion = region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion();
-      
+      region = getRegion(regionName);
       this.cacheFlusher.reclaimMemStoreMemory();
       Integer[] locks = new Integer[puts.length];
       for (i = 0; i < puts.length; i++) {
@@ -1681,19 +1679,16 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
 
     } catch (WrongRegionException ex) {
       LOG.debug("Batch puts: " + i, ex);
+      return i;
     } catch (NotServingRegionException ex) {
+      return i;
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       throw convertThrowableToIOE(cleanup(t));
     }
     // All have been processed successfully.
 
-    this.hlog.sync(isMetaRegion);
-
-    if (i == puts.length) {
-      return -1;
-    } else {
-      return i;
-    }
+    this.syncWal(region);
+    return -1;
   }
 
   /**
@@ -1722,7 +1717,7 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
       boolean retval = region.checkAndPut(row, family, qualifier, value, put,
           getLockFromId(put.getLockId()), true);
 
-      this.hlog.sync(region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion());
+      this.syncWal(region);
       return retval;
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       throw convertThrowableToIOE(cleanup(t));
@@ -1871,7 +1866,7 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
       HRegion region = getRegion(regionName);
       region.delete(delete, lid, writeToWAL);
 
-      this.hlog.sync(region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion());
+      this.syncWal(region);
     } catch (WrongRegionException ex) {
     } catch (NotServingRegionException ex) {
       // ignore
@@ -1885,13 +1880,12 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
     // Count of Deletes processed.
     int i = 0;
     checkOpen();
-    boolean isMetaRegion = false;
+    HRegion region = null;
     try {
       boolean writeToWAL = true;
       this.cacheFlusher.reclaimMemStoreMemory();
       Integer[] locks = new Integer[deletes.length];
-      HRegion region = getRegion(regionName);
-      isMetaRegion = region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion();
+      region = getRegion(regionName);
 
       for (i = 0; i < deletes.length; i++) {
         this.requestCount.incrementAndGet();
@@ -1907,8 +1901,7 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
       throw convertThrowableToIOE(cleanup(t));
     }
 
-    this.hlog.sync(isMetaRegion);
-    // All have been processed successfully.
+    this.syncWal(region);
     return -1;
   }
 
@@ -2348,7 +2341,7 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
       long retval = region.incrementColumnValue(row, family, qualifier, amount,
           writeToWAL);
 
-      this.hlog.sync(region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion());
+      syncWal(region);
 
       return retval;
     } catch (IOException e) {
@@ -2372,6 +2365,13 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
     return serverInfo;
   }
 
+  // Sync the WAL if the table permits it
+  private void syncWal(HRegion region) {
+    if(!region.getTableDesc().isDeferredLogFlush()) {
+      this.hlog.sync(region.getRegionInfo().isMetaRegion());
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * @param args
    */