diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c258514f580..382292d5f29 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -705,6 +705,7 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-3258  EOF when version file is empty
    HBASE-3259  Can't kill the region servers when they wait on the master or
                the cluster state znode
+   HBASE-3249  Typing 'help shutdown' in the shell shouldn't shutdown the cluster
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/ruby/hbase/admin.rb b/src/main/ruby/hbase/admin.rb
index 9edd77aa6ba..a2f94e027e6 100644
--- a/src/main/ruby/hbase/admin.rb
+++ b/src/main/ruby/hbase/admin.rb
@@ -103,12 +103,6 @@ module Hbase
       major_compact(HConstants::META_TABLE_NAME)
     end
 
-    #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-    # Shuts hbase down
-    def shutdown
-      @admin.shutdown
-    end
-
     #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Returns ZooKeeper status dump
     def zk_dump
diff --git a/src/main/ruby/shell.rb b/src/main/ruby/shell.rb
index 3c942ed32b4..7ff36510f5e 100644
--- a/src/main/ruby/shell.rb
+++ b/src/main/ruby/shell.rb
@@ -254,7 +254,6 @@ Shell.load_command_group(
     enable_region
     flush
     major_compact
-    shutdown
     split
     zk
     zk_dump
diff --git a/src/main/ruby/shell/commands/shutdown.rb b/src/main/ruby/shell/commands/shutdown.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index ebe74ddc3bb..00000000000
--- a/src/main/ruby/shell/commands/shutdown.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-#
-# Copyright 2010 The Apache Software Foundation
-#
-# 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.
-#
-
-module Shell
-  module Commands
-    class Shutdown < Command
-      def help
-        return <<-EOF
-Shut down the cluster.
-EOF
-      end
-
-      def command
-        admin.shutdown
-      end
-    end
-  end
-end