diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 6a8445cff47..bef0a079038 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -147,6 +147,9 @@ New Features
 
 33. SOLR-820: Support replication on startup of master with new index. (Noble Paul, Akshay Ukey via shalin)
 
+34. SOLR-943: Make it possible to specify dataDir in solr.xml and accept the dataDir as a request parameter for
+    the CoreAdmin create command. (Noble Paul via shalin)
+
 
 Optimizations
 ----------------------
diff --git a/src/common/org/apache/solr/common/params/CoreAdminParams.java b/src/common/org/apache/solr/common/params/CoreAdminParams.java
index 1d85b2fdad2..4c8c1382677 100644
--- a/src/common/org/apache/solr/common/params/CoreAdminParams.java
+++ b/src/common/org/apache/solr/common/params/CoreAdminParams.java
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ public interface CoreAdminParams
   /** If you rename something, what is the new name **/
   public final static String NAME = "name";
 
+  /** If you rename something, what is the new name **/
+  public final static String DATA_DIR = "dataDir";
+
   /** Name of the other core in actions involving 2 cores **/
   public final static String OTHER = "other";
 
@@ -72,4 +75,4 @@ public interface CoreAdminParams
       return null; 
     }
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
index e219b65a56e..561d8222a25 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
 
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException;
+import org.apache.solr.common.params.CoreAdminParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.DOMUtil;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.XML;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.StrUtils;
@@ -212,6 +213,10 @@ public class CoreContainer
           if (opt != null) {
             p.setSchemaName(opt);
           }
+          opt = DOMUtil.getAttr(node, CoreAdminParams.DATA_DIR, null);
+          if (opt != null) {
+            p.setDataDir(opt);
+          }
 
           p.setCoreProperties(readProperties(cfg, node));
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreDescriptor.java
index aa7af9ed81e..fa48aacec07 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreDescriptor.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.solr.core;
 
 import java.util.Properties;
+import java.io.File;
 
 /**
  * A Solr core descriptor
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ import java.util.Properties;
 public class CoreDescriptor implements Cloneable {
   protected String name;
   protected String instanceDir;
+  protected String dataDir;
   protected String configName;
   protected String schemaName;
   private final CoreContainer coreContainer;
@@ -52,6 +54,7 @@ public class CoreDescriptor implements Cloneable {
     this.configName = descr.configName;
     this.schemaName = descr.schemaName;
     this.name = descr.name;
+    this.dataDir = descr.dataDir;
     coreContainer = descr.coreContainer;
   }
 
@@ -59,6 +62,7 @@ public class CoreDescriptor implements Cloneable {
     Properties implicitProperties = new Properties(coreContainer.getContainerProperties());
     implicitProperties.setProperty("solr.core.name", name);
     implicitProperties.setProperty("solr.core.instanceDir", instanceDir);
+    implicitProperties.setProperty("solr.core.dataDir", getDataDir());
     implicitProperties.setProperty("solr.core.configName", configName);
     implicitProperties.setProperty("solr.core.schemaName", schemaName);
     return implicitProperties;
@@ -76,9 +80,22 @@ public class CoreDescriptor implements Cloneable {
   
   /**@return the default data directory. */
   public String getDefaultDataDir() {
-    return this.instanceDir + "data/";
+    return this.instanceDir + "data"+File.separator;
   }
- 
+
+  public String getDataDir() {
+    if (dataDir == null) return getDefaultDataDir();
+    String absolutePath = new File(dataDir).getAbsolutePath();
+    if (absolutePath.equals(dataDir) || (absolutePath + File.separator).equals(dataDir)) return dataDir;
+    return dataDir.endsWith(File.separator) ?
+            instanceDir + dataDir :
+            instanceDir + dataDir + File.separator;
+  }
+
+  public void setDataDir(String s) {
+    dataDir = s;
+  }
+
   /**@return the core instance directory. */
   public String getInstanceDir() {
     return instanceDir;
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
index 5a62a82e0e5..7be037e5512 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
@@ -491,7 +491,7 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
       this.setName( name );
       SolrResourceLoader loader = config.getResourceLoader();
       if (dataDir == null)
-        dataDir = config.get("dataDir",loader.getInstanceDir()+"data/");
+        dataDir = config.get("dataDir",cd.getDataDir());
 
       dataDir = SolrResourceLoader.normalizeDir(dataDir);
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CoreAdminHandler.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CoreAdminHandler.java
index f2d1a425f07..72234ee7d5a 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CoreAdminHandler.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CoreAdminHandler.java
@@ -103,7 +103,9 @@ public abstract class CoreAdminHandler extends RequestHandlerBase
         if (opts != null)
           dcore.setSchemaName(opts);
 
-        dcore.setCoreProperties(null);
+        opts = params.get(CoreAdminParams.DATA_DIR);
+        if (opts != null)
+          dcore.setDataDir(opts);
 
         SolrCore core = cores.create(dcore);
         cores.register(name, core,false);