diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 5d1e5f53ba..0be938b4b1 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -347,6 +347,9 @@ Release 2.6.0 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-6070. yarn.app.am.resource.mb/cpu-vcores affects uber mode but
     is not documented (Tsuyoshi OZAWA via jlowe)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-6090. mapred hsadmin getGroups fails to connect in some cases
+    (Robert Kanter via jlowe)
+
 Release 2.5.1 - 2014-09-05
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/client/HSAdmin.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/client/HSAdmin.java
index be6ca13181..000ea54618 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/client/HSAdmin.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/client/HSAdmin.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience.Private;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configured;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.hs.HSProxies;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.hs.protocol.HSAdminRefreshProtocol;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.jobhistory.JHAdminConfig;
@@ -41,7 +42,7 @@ public HSAdmin() {
     super();
   }
 
-  public HSAdmin(Configuration conf) {
+  public HSAdmin(JobConf conf) {
     super(conf);
   }
 
@@ -331,7 +332,8 @@ public int run(String[] args) throws Exception {
   }
 
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
-    int result = ToolRunner.run(new HSAdmin(), args);
+    JobConf conf = new JobConf();
+    int result = ToolRunner.run(new HSAdmin(conf), args);
     System.exit(result);
   }
 }
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/server/TestHSAdminServer.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/server/TestHSAdminServer.java
index 277a1953c8..2c239ec2bb 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/server/TestHSAdminServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-hs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/hs/server/TestHSAdminServer.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.HadoopIllegalArgumentException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc.RemoteException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.hs.JobHistory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.hs.client.HSAdmin;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.v2.jobhistory.JHAdminConfig;
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@
 public class TestHSAdminServer {
   private HSAdminServer hsAdminServer = null;
   private HSAdmin hsAdminClient = null;
-  Configuration conf = null;
+  JobConf conf = null;
   private static long groupRefreshTimeoutSec = 1;
   JobHistory jobHistoryService = null;
   AggregatedLogDeletionService alds = null;
@@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ public void cacheGroupsAdd(List<String> groups) throws IOException {
 
   @Before
   public void init() throws HadoopIllegalArgumentException, IOException {
-    conf = new Configuration();
+    conf = new JobConf();
     conf.set(JHAdminConfig.JHS_ADMIN_ADDRESS, "0.0.0.0:0");
     conf.setClass("hadoop.security.group.mapping", MockUnixGroupsMapping.class,
         GroupMappingServiceProvider.class);