diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/VersionInfo.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/VersionInfo.java
index b57255aeed6..bc5b6dcdf2e 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/VersionInfo.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/VersionInfo.java
@@ -166,6 +166,10 @@ public class VersionInfo {
     return comps;
   }
 
+  public static int getMajorVersion(String version) {
+    return Integer.parseInt(version.split("\\.")[0]);
+  }
+
   public static void main(String[] args) {
     writeTo(System.out);
   }
diff --git a/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh b/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
index 181d009abfb..434e57061cc 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
+++ b/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
@@ -70,8 +70,10 @@ package org.apache.hadoop.hbase;
 import org.apache.yetus.audience.InterfaceAudience;
 
 @InterfaceAudience.Private
+@edu.umd.cs.findbugs.annotations.SuppressWarnings(value="DM_STRING_CTOR",
+  justification="Intentional; to be modified in test")
 public class Version {
-  public static final String version = "$version";
+  public static final String version = new String("$version");
   public static final String revision = "$revision";
   public static final String user = "$user";
   public static final String date = "$date";
diff --git a/hbase-rsgroup/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rsgroup/TestRSGroupsKillRS.java b/hbase-rsgroup/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rsgroup/TestRSGroupsKillRS.java
index 503a1a69f61..539f351e138 100644
--- a/hbase-rsgroup/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rsgroup/TestRSGroupsKillRS.java
+++ b/hbase-rsgroup/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rsgroup/TestRSGroupsKillRS.java
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ import static org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Threads.sleep;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+import java.lang.reflect.Modifier;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -30,6 +32,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseClassTestRule;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.NamespaceDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ServerName;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableName;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Version;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Waiter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ColumnFamilyDescriptorBuilder;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.RegionInfo;
@@ -40,6 +43,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.net.Address;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.MediumTests;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.JVMClusterUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.VersionInfo;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
 import org.junit.Before;
@@ -224,4 +228,54 @@ public class TestRSGroupsKillRS extends TestRSGroupsBase {
     // wait and check if table regions are online
     TEST_UTIL.waitTableAvailable(tableName, 30000);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testLowerMetaGroupVersion() throws Exception{
+    // create a rsgroup and move one regionserver to it
+    String groupName = "meta_group";
+    int groupRSCount = 1;
+    addGroup(groupName, groupRSCount);
+
+    // move hbase:meta to meta_group
+    tableName = TableName.META_TABLE_NAME;
+    Set<TableName> toAddTables = new HashSet<>();
+    toAddTables.add(tableName);
+    rsGroupAdmin.moveTables(toAddTables, groupName);
+    assertTrue(rsGroupAdmin.getRSGroupInfo(groupName).getTables().contains(tableName));
+    TEST_UTIL.waitTableAvailable(tableName, 30000);
+
+    // restart the regionserver in meta_group, and lower its version
+    String originVersion = "";
+    Set<Address> servers = new HashSet<>();
+    for(Address addr : rsGroupAdmin.getRSGroupInfo(groupName).getServers()) {
+      servers.add(addr);
+      TEST_UTIL.getMiniHBaseCluster().stopRegionServer(getServerName(addr));
+      originVersion = master.getRegionServerVersion(getServerName(addr));
+    }
+    // better wait for a while for region reassign
+    sleep(10000);
+    assertEquals(NUM_SLAVES_BASE - groupRSCount,
+        TEST_UTIL.getMiniHBaseCluster().getLiveRegionServerThreads().size());
+    Address address = servers.iterator().next();
+    int majorVersion = VersionInfo.getMajorVersion(originVersion);
+    assertTrue(majorVersion >= 1);
+    String lowerVersion = String.valueOf(majorVersion - 1) + originVersion.split("\\.")[1];
+    setFinalStatic(Version.class.getField("version"), lowerVersion);
+    TEST_UTIL.getMiniHBaseCluster().startRegionServer(address.getHostname(),
+        address.getPort());
+    assertEquals(NUM_SLAVES_BASE,
+        TEST_UTIL.getMiniHBaseCluster().getLiveRegionServerThreads().size());
+    assertTrue(VersionInfo.compareVersion(originVersion,
+        master.getRegionServerVersion(getServerName(servers.iterator().next()))) > 0);
+    LOG.debug("wait for META assigned...");
+    TEST_UTIL.waitTableAvailable(tableName, 30000);
+  }
+
+  private static void setFinalStatic(Field field, Object newValue) throws Exception {
+    field.setAccessible(true);
+    Field modifiersField = Field.class.getDeclaredField("modifiers");
+    modifiersField.setAccessible(true);
+    modifiersField.setInt(field, field.getModifiers() & ~Modifier.FINAL);
+    field.set(null, newValue);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
index bb3fc28cb57..837bf4787ca 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
@@ -1959,12 +1959,24 @@ public class AssignmentManager {
       LOG.debug("Processing assignQueue; systemServersCount=" + serversForSysTables.size() +
           ", allServersCount=" + servers.size());
       processAssignmentPlans(regions, null, systemHRIs,
-          serversForSysTables.isEmpty()? servers: serversForSysTables);
+          serversForSysTables.isEmpty() && !containsBogusAssignments(regions, systemHRIs) ?
+              servers: serversForSysTables);
     }
 
     processAssignmentPlans(regions, retainMap, userHRIs, servers);
   }
 
+  private boolean containsBogusAssignments(Map<RegionInfo, RegionStateNode> regions,
+      List<RegionInfo> hirs) {
+    for (RegionInfo ri : hirs) {
+      if (regions.get(ri).getRegionLocation() != null &&
+          regions.get(ri).getRegionLocation().equals(LoadBalancer.BOGUS_SERVER_NAME)){
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   private void processAssignmentPlans(final HashMap<RegionInfo, RegionStateNode> regions,
       final HashMap<RegionInfo, ServerName> retainMap, final List<RegionInfo> hris,
       final List<ServerName> servers) {
@@ -2020,7 +2032,16 @@ public class AssignmentManager {
       for (RegionInfo hri: entry.getValue()) {
         final RegionStateNode regionNode = regions.get(hri);
         regionNode.setRegionLocation(server);
-        events[evcount++] = regionNode.getProcedureEvent();
+        if (server.equals(LoadBalancer.BOGUS_SERVER_NAME) && regionNode.isSystemTable()) {
+          assignQueueLock.lock();
+          try {
+            pendingAssignQueue.add(regionNode);
+          } finally {
+            assignQueueLock.unlock();
+          }
+        }else {
+          events[evcount++] = regionNode.getProcedureEvent();
+        }
       }
     }
     ProcedureEvent.wakeEvents(getProcedureScheduler(), events);