diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 0405b17a56..b8afc6b7ce 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -440,6 +440,8 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
     HADOOP-7720. Added parameter for HBase user to setup config script.
     (Arpit Gupta via Eric Yang)
 
+    HADOOP-7624. Set things up for a top level hadoop-tools module. (tucu)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
   
     HADOOP-7333. Performance improvement in PureJavaCrc32. (Eric Caspole
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/pom.xml b/hadoop-tools/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7f82ab1a67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-tools/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License. See accompanying LICENSE file.
+-->
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <parent>
+    <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
+    <artifactId>hadoop-project</artifactId>
+    <version>0.24.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../hadoop-project</relativePath>
+  </parent>
+  <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
+  <artifactId>hadoop-tools-project</artifactId>
+  <version>0.24.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <description>Apache Hadoop Tools</description>
+  <name>Apache Hadoop Tools</name>
+  <packaging>pom</packaging>
+
+  <modules>
+  </modules>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.rat</groupId>
+        <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
+        <configuration>
+          <includes>
+            <include>pom.xml</include>
+          </includes>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
+</project>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ad8f0928c4..29adbe95be 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
     <module>hadoop-common-project</module>
     <module>hadoop-hdfs-project</module>
     <module>hadoop-mapreduce-project</module>
+    <module>hadoop-tools</module>
   </modules>
 
   <build>