diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/NettyRpcServerRequestDecoder.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/NettyRpcServerRequestDecoder.java
index 1e844bb02cb..40f59ad1259 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/NettyRpcServerRequestDecoder.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ipc/NettyRpcServerRequestDecoder.java
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ class NettyRpcServerRequestDecoder extends ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter {
   public void exceptionCaught(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Throwable e) {
     allChannels.remove(ctx.channel());
     NettyRpcServer.LOG.trace("Connection {}; caught unexpected downstream exception.",
-        ctx.channel().remoteAddress(), e.getCause());
+        ctx.channel().remoteAddress(), e);
     ctx.channel().close();
   }
 }