diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 413583c27a1..647b60bfa4f 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -80,6 +80,8 @@ New Features
 
 * SOLR-4785: New MaxScoreQParserPlugin returning max() instead of sum() of terms (janhoy)
 
+* SOLR-4234: Add support for binary files in ZooKeeper. (Eric Pugh via Mark Miller)
+
 Bug Fixes
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
index 922b486aae4..496da732505 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
@@ -1251,7 +1251,7 @@ public final class ZkController {
         byte[] data = zkClient.getData(zkPath + "/" + file, null, null, true);
         dir.mkdirs(); 
         log.info("Write file " + new File(dir, file));
-        FileUtils.writeStringToFile(new File(dir, file), new String(data, "UTF-8"), "UTF-8");
+        FileUtils.writeByteArrayToFile(new File(dir, file), data);
       } else {
         downloadFromZK(zkClient, zkPath + "/" + file, new File(dir, file));
       }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/ShowFileRequestHandler.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/ShowFileRequestHandler.java
index c40a8ca1ced..c971c85313c 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/ShowFileRequestHandler.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/ShowFileRequestHandler.java
@@ -191,9 +191,7 @@ public class ShowFileRequestHandler extends RequestHandlerBase
       ModifiableSolrParams params = new ModifiableSolrParams(req.getParams());
       params.set(CommonParams.WT, "raw");
       req.setParams(params);
-      
-      ContentStreamBase content = new ContentStreamBase.StringStream(
-          new String(zkClient.getData(adminFile, null, null, true), "UTF-8"));
+      ContentStreamBase content = new ContentStreamBase.ByteArrayStream(zkClient.getData(adminFile, null, null, true), adminFile);
       content.setContentType(req.getParams().get(USE_CONTENT_TYPE));
       
       rsp.add(RawResponseWriter.CONTENT, content);
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
index 70c4ad4bc03..704a15585d7 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkCLITest.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package org.apache.solr.cloud;
  */
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
@@ -186,6 +187,22 @@ public class ZkCLITest extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
     List<String> zkFiles = zkClient.getChildren(ZkController.CONFIGS_ZKNODE + "/" + confsetname, null, true);
     assertEquals(files.length, zkFiles.size());
     
+    File sourceConfDir = new File(ExternalPaths.EXAMPLE_HOME + File.separator + "collection1"
+            + File.separator + "conf");
+    Collection<File> sourceFiles = FileUtils.listFiles(sourceConfDir,null,true);
+    for (File sourceFile :sourceFiles){
+      if (!sourceFile.isHidden()){
+        int indexOfRelativePath = sourceFile.getAbsolutePath().lastIndexOf("collection1/conf");
+        String relativePathofFile = sourceFile.getAbsolutePath().substring(indexOfRelativePath + 17, sourceFile.getAbsolutePath().length());
+        File downloadedFile = new File(confDir,relativePathofFile);
+        assertTrue("Make sure we did download each file in the original configuration",downloadedFile.exists());
+        assertTrue("Content didn't change",FileUtils.contentEquals(sourceFile,downloadedFile));
+
+      }
+      
+    }
+    
+   
     // test reset zk
     args = new String[] {"-zkhost", zkServer.getZkAddress(), "-cmd",
         "clear", "/"};
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
index 59cb15b94b0..bf69b2c8df1 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
@@ -311,13 +311,13 @@ public class SolrZkClient {
   
   public void makePath(String path, File file, boolean failOnExists, boolean retryOnConnLoss)
       throws IOException, KeeperException, InterruptedException {
-    makePath(path, FileUtils.readFileToString(file).getBytes("UTF-8"),
+    makePath(path, FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(file),
         CreateMode.PERSISTENT, null, failOnExists, retryOnConnLoss);
   }
   
   public void makePath(String path, File file, boolean retryOnConnLoss) throws IOException,
       KeeperException, InterruptedException {
-    makePath(path, FileUtils.readFileToString(file).getBytes("UTF-8"), retryOnConnLoss);
+    makePath(path, FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(file), retryOnConnLoss);
   }
   
   public void makePath(String path, CreateMode createMode, boolean retryOnConnLoss) throws KeeperException,
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ContentStreamBase.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ContentStreamBase.java
index 877da360999..d531b0faf33 100755
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ContentStreamBase.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ContentStreamBase.java
@@ -233,4 +233,27 @@ public abstract class ContentStreamBase implements ContentStream
   public void setSourceInfo(String sourceInfo) {
     this.sourceInfo = sourceInfo;
   }
+  
+  /**
+   * Construct a <code>ContentStream</code> from a <code>File</code>
+   */
+  public static class ByteArrayStream extends ContentStreamBase
+  {
+    private final byte[] bytes;
+    
+    public ByteArrayStream( byte[] bytes, String source ) {
+      this.bytes = bytes; 
+      
+      this.contentType = null;
+      name = source;
+      size = new Long(bytes.length);
+      sourceInfo = source;
+    }
+
+
+    @Override
+    public InputStream getStream() throws IOException {
+      return new ByteArrayInputStream( bytes );
+    }
+  }  
 }