diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/HBaseInfo.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/HBaseInfo.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..fb65a652d3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/HBaseInfo.java
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+/**
+ * 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.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.metrics;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.metrics.MetricsMBeanBase;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.MetricsContext;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.MetricsRecord;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.MetricsUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.util.MBeanUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.util.MetricsRegistry;
+
+import javax.management.ObjectName;
+
+/**
+ * Exports HBase system information as an MBean for JMX observation.
+ */
+public class HBaseInfo {
+  protected static class HBaseInfoMBean extends MetricsMBeanBase {
+    private final ObjectName mbeanName;
+  
+    public HBaseInfoMBean(MetricsRegistry registry, String rsName) {
+      super(registry, "HBaseInfo");
+      mbeanName = MBeanUtil.registerMBean("HBase",
+          "Info", this);
+    }
+  
+    public void shutdown() {
+      if (mbeanName != null)
+        MBeanUtil.unregisterMBean(mbeanName);
+    }
+  }
+
+  protected final MetricsRecord mr;
+  protected final HBaseInfoMBean mbean;
+  protected MetricsRegistry registry = new MetricsRegistry();
+
+  private static HBaseInfo theInstance = null;
+  public synchronized static HBaseInfo init() {
+      if (theInstance == null) {
+        theInstance = new HBaseInfo();
+      }
+      return theInstance;
+  }
+  
+  // HBase jar info
+  private MetricsString date = new MetricsString("date", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo.getDate());
+  private MetricsString revision = new MetricsString("revision", registry, 
+      org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo.getRevision());
+  private MetricsString url = new MetricsString("url", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo.getUrl());
+  private MetricsString user = new MetricsString("user", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo.getUser());
+  private MetricsString version = new MetricsString("version", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo.getVersion());
+
+  // Info on the HDFS jar that HBase has (aka: HDFS Client)
+  private MetricsString hdfsDate = new MetricsString("hdfsDate", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.util.VersionInfo.getDate());
+  private MetricsString hdfsRev = new MetricsString("hdfsRevision", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.util.VersionInfo.getRevision());
+  private MetricsString hdfsUrl = new MetricsString("hdfsUrl", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.util.VersionInfo.getUrl());
+  private MetricsString hdfsUser = new MetricsString("hdfsUser", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.util.VersionInfo.getUser());
+  private MetricsString hdfsVer = new MetricsString("hdfsVersion", registry,
+      org.apache.hadoop.util.VersionInfo.getVersion());
+
+  protected HBaseInfo() {
+    MetricsContext context = MetricsUtil.getContext("hbase");
+    mr = MetricsUtil.createRecord(context, "info");
+    String name = Thread.currentThread().getName();
+    mr.setTag("Info", name);
+
+    // export for JMX
+    mbean = new HBaseInfoMBean(this.registry, name);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/MetricsString.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/MetricsString.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2ee8066f59d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/metrics/MetricsString.java
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+/**
+ * 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.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.metrics;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.MetricsRecord;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.util.MetricsBase;
+import org.apache.hadoop.metrics.util.MetricsRegistry;
+
+/**
+ * Publishes a string to the metrics collector
+ */
+public class MetricsString extends MetricsBase {
+  private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog("org.apache.hadoop.hbase.metrics");
+
+  private String value;
+
+  public MetricsString(final String name, final MetricsRegistry registry, 
+      final String value) {
+    super(name, NO_DESCRIPTION);
+    this.value = value;
+    registry.add(name, this);
+  }
+  public MetricsString(final String name, final String description, 
+      final MetricsRegistry registry, final String value) {
+    super(name, description);
+    this.value = value;
+    registry.add(name, this);
+  }
+  
+  public String getValue() {
+    return this.value;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public synchronized void pushMetric(final MetricsRecord mr) {
+    // NOOP
+    // MetricsMBeanBase.getAttribute is where we actually fill the data
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file