diff --git a/bin/hbase-common.sh b/bin/hbase-common.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c9d4ef3efa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/hbase-common.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+##
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+##
+
+#Shared function to wait for a process end. Take the pid and the command name as parameters
+waitForProcessEnd() {
+  pidKilled=$1
+  commandName=$2
+  processedAt=`date +%s`
+  while kill -0 $pidKilled > /dev/null 2>&1;
+   do
+     echo -n "."
+     sleep 1;
+     # if process persists more than $HBASE_STOP_TIMEOUT (default 1200 sec) no mercy
+     if [ $(( `date +%s` - $processedAt )) -gt ${HBASE_STOP_TIMEOUT:-1200} ]; then
+       break;
+     fi
+   done
+  # process still there : kill -9
+  if kill -0 $pidKilled > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo -n force stopping $commandName with kill -9 $pidKilled
+    kill -9 $pidKilled > /dev/null 2>&1
+  fi
+  # Add a CR after we're done w/ dots.
+  echo
+}
diff --git a/bin/hbase-daemon.sh b/bin/hbase-daemon.sh
index 7fb5458eda9..70ead10fd8c 100755
--- a/bin/hbase-daemon.sh
+++ b/bin/hbase-daemon.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
 #   HBASE_PID_DIR    The pid files are stored. /tmp by default.
 #   HBASE_IDENT_STRING   A string representing this instance of hadoop. $USER by default
 #   HBASE_NICENESS The scheduling priority for daemons. Defaults to 0.
+#   HBASE_STOP_TIMEOUT  Time, in seconds, after which we kill -9 the server if it has not stopped.
+#                        Default 1200 seconds.
 #
 # Modelled after $HADOOP_HOME/bin/hadoop-daemon.sh
 
@@ -46,6 +48,7 @@ bin=`dirname "${BASH_SOURCE-$0}"`
 bin=`cd "$bin">/dev/null; pwd`
 
 . "$bin"/hbase-config.sh
+. "$bin"/hbase-common.sh
 
 # get arguments
 startStop=$1
@@ -235,28 +238,13 @@ case $startStop in
     rm -f "$HBASE_START_FILE"
     if [ -f $pid ]; then
       pidToKill=`cat $pid`
-      processedAt=`date +%s`
       # kill -0 == see if the PID exists
       if kill -0 $pidToKill > /dev/null 2>&1; then
         echo -n stopping $command
         echo "`date` Terminating $command" >> $loglog
         kill $pidToKill > /dev/null 2>&1
-        while kill -0 $pidToKill > /dev/null 2>&1;
-         do
-           echo -n "."
-           sleep 1;
-           # if process persists more than $HBASE_STOP_TIMEOUT (default 1200 sec) no mercy
-           if [ $(( `date +%s` - $processedAt )) -gt ${HBASE_STOP_TIMEOUT:-1200} ]; then
-             break;
-           fi
-         done
-        # process still there : kill kill
-        if kill -0 $pidToKill > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-          echo -n force stopping $command
-          kill -9 $pidToKill > /dev/null 2>&1
-        fi
+        waitForProcessEnd $pidToKill $command
         rm $pid
-        echo
       else
         retval=$?
         echo no $command to stop because kill -0 of pid $pidToKill failed with status $retval
diff --git a/bin/stop-hbase.sh b/bin/stop-hbase.sh
index 591ccdba694..34f38a8b3e0 100755
--- a/bin/stop-hbase.sh
+++ b/bin/stop-hbase.sh
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ bin=`dirname "${BASH_SOURCE-$0}"`
 bin=`cd "$bin">/dev/null; pwd`
 
 . "$bin"/hbase-config.sh
+. "$bin"/hbase-common.sh
 
 # variables needed for stop command
 if [ "$HBASE_LOG_DIR" = "" ]; then
@@ -52,13 +53,10 @@ nohup nice -n ${HBASE_NICENESS:-0} "$HBASE_HOME"/bin/hbase \
    --config "${HBASE_CONF_DIR}" \
    master stop "$@" > "$logout" 2>&1 < /dev/null &
 
-while kill -0 `cat $pid` > /dev/null 2>&1; do
-  echo -n "."
-  sleep 1;
-done
+waitForProcessEnd `cat $pid` 'stop-master-command'
+
 rm -f $pid
-# Add a CR after we're done w/ dots.
-echo
+
 
 # distributed == false means that the HMaster will kill ZK when it exits
 # HBASE-6504 - only take the first line of the output in case verbose gc is on