diff --git a/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/SyncTable.java b/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/SyncTable.java
index a9688702f86..ecedf9580dc 100644
--- a/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/SyncTable.java
+++ b/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/SyncTable.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Counters;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Job;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.output.NullOutputFormat;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.security.TokenCache;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.GenericOptionsParser;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.Tool;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.ToolRunner;
@@ -83,12 +84,28 @@ public class SyncTable extends Configured implements Tool {
     super(conf);
   }
 
+  private void initCredentialsForHBase(String zookeeper, Job job) throws IOException {
+    Configuration peerConf = HBaseConfiguration.createClusterConf(job
+            .getConfiguration(), zookeeper);
+    if(peerConf.get("hbase.security.authentication").equals("kerberos")){
+      TableMapReduceUtil.initCredentialsForCluster(job, peerConf);
+    }
+  }
+
   public Job createSubmittableJob(String[] args) throws IOException {
     FileSystem fs = sourceHashDir.getFileSystem(getConf());
     if (!fs.exists(sourceHashDir)) {
       throw new IOException("Source hash dir not found: " + sourceHashDir);
     }
 
+    Job job = Job.getInstance(getConf(),getConf().get("mapreduce.job.name",
+        "syncTable_" + sourceTableName + "-" + targetTableName));
+    Configuration jobConf = job.getConfiguration();
+    if (jobConf.get("hadoop.security.authentication").equals("kerberos")) {
+      TokenCache.obtainTokensForNamenodes(job.getCredentials(), new
+          Path[] { sourceHashDir }, getConf());
+    }
+
     HashTable.TableHash tableHash = HashTable.TableHash.read(getConf(), sourceHashDir);
     LOG.info("Read source hash manifest: " + tableHash);
     LOG.info("Read " + tableHash.partitions.size() + " partition keys");
@@ -118,18 +135,17 @@ public class SyncTable extends Configured implements Tool {
           + " found in the partitions file is " + tableHash.partitions.size());
     }
 
-    Job job = Job.getInstance(getConf(),getConf().get("mapreduce.job.name",
-        "syncTable_" + sourceTableName + "-" + targetTableName));
-    Configuration jobConf = job.getConfiguration();
     job.setJarByClass(HashTable.class);
     jobConf.set(SOURCE_HASH_DIR_CONF_KEY, sourceHashDir.toString());
     jobConf.set(SOURCE_TABLE_CONF_KEY, sourceTableName);
     jobConf.set(TARGET_TABLE_CONF_KEY, targetTableName);
     if (sourceZkCluster != null) {
       jobConf.set(SOURCE_ZK_CLUSTER_CONF_KEY, sourceZkCluster);
+      initCredentialsForHBase(sourceZkCluster, job);
     }
     if (targetZkCluster != null) {
       jobConf.set(TARGET_ZK_CLUSTER_CONF_KEY, targetZkCluster);
+      initCredentialsForHBase(targetZkCluster, job);
     }
     jobConf.setBoolean(DRY_RUN_CONF_KEY, dryRun);
     jobConf.setBoolean(DO_DELETES_CONF_KEY, doDeletes);