diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/LoadIncrementalHFiles.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/LoadIncrementalHFiles.java
index 039a10a2a1d..8d99d0f8f4d 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/LoadIncrementalHFiles.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/LoadIncrementalHFiles.java
@@ -100,7 +100,6 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(LoadIncrementalHFiles.class);
   static final AtomicLong regionCount = new AtomicLong(0);
   private HBaseAdmin hbAdmin;
-  private Configuration cfg;
 
   public static final String NAME = "completebulkload";
   private static final String ASSIGN_SEQ_IDS = "hbase.mapreduce.bulkload.assign.sequenceNumbers";
@@ -113,7 +112,10 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
 
   public LoadIncrementalHFiles(Configuration conf) throws Exception {
     super(conf);
-    this.cfg = conf;
+    // make a copy, just to be sure we're not overriding someone else's config
+    setConf(HBaseConfiguration.create(getConf()));
+    // disable blockcache for tool invocation, see HBASE-10500
+    getConf().setFloat(HConstants.HFILE_BLOCK_CACHE_SIZE_KEY, 0);
     this.hbAdmin = new HBaseAdmin(conf);
     this.userProvider = UserProvider.instantiate(conf);
     assignSeqIds = conf.getBoolean(ASSIGN_SEQ_IDS, true);
@@ -204,8 +206,8 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
     }
 
     // initialize thread pools
-    int nrThreads = cfg.getInt("hbase.loadincremental.threads.max",
-        Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());
+    int nrThreads = getConf().getInt("hbase.loadincremental.threads.max",
+      Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());
     ThreadFactoryBuilder builder = new ThreadFactoryBuilder();
     builder.setNameFormat("LoadIncrementalHFiles-%1$d");
     ExecutorService pool = new ThreadPoolExecutor(nrThreads, nrThreads,
@@ -252,7 +254,7 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
       //If using secure bulk load
       //prepare staging directory and token
       if (userProvider.isHBaseSecurityEnabled()) {
-        FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(cfg);
+        FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(getConf());
         //This condition is here for unit testing
         //Since delegation token doesn't work in mini cluster
         if (userProvider.isHadoopSecurityEnabled()) {
@@ -278,7 +280,7 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
               + count + " with " + queue.size() + " files remaining to group or split");
         }
 
-        int maxRetries = cfg.getInt("hbase.bulkload.retries.number", 0);
+        int maxRetries = getConf().getInt("hbase.bulkload.retries.number", 0);
         if (maxRetries != 0 && count >= maxRetries) {
           LOG.error("Retry attempted " + count +  " times without completing, bailing out");
           return;
@@ -300,7 +302,7 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
       if (userProvider.isHBaseSecurityEnabled()) {
         if (userToken != null && !hasForwardedToken) {
           try {
-            userToken.cancel(cfg);
+            userToken.cancel(getConf());
           } catch (Exception e) {
             LOG.warn("Failed to cancel HDFS delegation token.", e);
           }
@@ -579,7 +581,7 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
           //from the staging directory back to original location
           //in user directory
           if(secureClient != null && !success) {
-            FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(cfg);
+            FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(getConf());
             for(Pair<byte[], String> el : famPaths) {
               Path hfileStagingPath = null;
               Path hfileOrigPath = new Path(el.getSecond());
@@ -811,21 +813,22 @@ public class LoadIncrementalHFiles extends Configured implements Tool {
       return -1;
     }
 
-    String dirPath   = args[0];
+    String dirPath = args[0];
     TableName tableName = TableName.valueOf(args[1]);
 
-    boolean tableExists   = this.doesTableExist(tableName);
+    boolean tableExists = this.doesTableExist(tableName);
     if (!tableExists) this.createTable(tableName,dirPath);
 
     Path hfofDir = new Path(dirPath);
-    HTable table = new HTable(this.cfg, tableName);
+    HTable table = new HTable(getConf(), tableName);
 
     doBulkLoad(hfofDir, table);
     return 0;
   }
 
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
-    int ret = ToolRunner.run(new LoadIncrementalHFiles(HBaseConfiguration.create()), args);
+    Configuration conf = HBaseConfiguration.create();
+    int ret = ToolRunner.run(new LoadIncrementalHFiles(conf), args);
     System.exit(ret);
   }
 
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 ba2bf4e7e05..b2ff46bae28 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
@@ -270,6 +270,10 @@ public class HBaseFsck extends Configured {
   public HBaseFsck(Configuration conf) throws MasterNotRunningException,
       ZooKeeperConnectionException, IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
     super(conf);
+    // make a copy, just to be sure we're not overriding someone else's config
+    setConf(HBaseConfiguration.create(getConf()));
+    // disable blockcache for tool invocation, see HBASE-10500
+    getConf().setFloat(HConstants.HFILE_BLOCK_CACHE_SIZE_KEY, 0);
     errors = getErrorReporter(conf);
 
     int numThreads = conf.getInt("hbasefsck.numthreads", MAX_NUM_THREADS);