diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
index e59969ac97b..c73d8a3ba82 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
@@ -2722,11 +2722,21 @@ public class HBaseFsck extends Configured {
 
   HTableDescriptor[] getHTableDescriptors(List<TableName> tableNames) {
     HTableDescriptor[] htd = new HTableDescriptor[0];
+    HBaseAdmin admin = null;
     try {
       LOG.info("getHTableDescriptors == tableNames => " + tableNames);
-      htd = new HBaseAdmin(getConf()).getTableDescriptorsByTableName(tableNames);
+      admin = new HBaseAdmin(getConf());
+      htd = admin.getTableDescriptorsByTableName(tableNames);
     } catch (IOException e) {
       LOG.debug("Exception getting table descriptors", e);
+    } finally {
+      if (admin != null) {
+        try {
+          admin.close();
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+          LOG.debug("Exception closing HBaseAdmin", e);
+        }
+      }
     }
     return htd;
   }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HMerge.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HMerge.java
index 00c1c2b0936..80bf475a3bc 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HMerge.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HMerge.java
@@ -125,8 +125,12 @@ class HMerge {
             "HBase instance must be running to merge a normal table");
       }
       HBaseAdmin admin = new HBaseAdmin(conf);
-      if (!admin.isTableDisabled(tableName)) {
-        throw new TableNotDisabledException(tableName);
+      try {
+        if (!admin.isTableDisabled(tableName)) {
+          throw new TableNotDisabledException(tableName);
+        }
+      } finally {
+        admin.close();
       }
       new OnlineMerger(conf, fs, tableName).process();
     }