diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 41964745ae..2f755073d5 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -610,6 +610,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9125. LdapGroupsMapping threw CommunicationException after some
     idle time. (Kai Zheng via atm)
 
+    HADOOP-9429. TestConfiguration fails with IBM JAVA. (Amir Sanjar via
+    suresh)
+
 Release 2.0.4-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
index 8f5963c22c..19ff6c6c99 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ public class TestConfiguration extends TestCase {
   final static String CONFIG = new File("./test-config.xml").getAbsolutePath();
   final static String CONFIG2 = new File("./test-config2.xml").getAbsolutePath();
   final static Random RAN = new Random();
+  final static boolean IBMJAVA = System.getProperty("java.vendor").contains("IBM"); 
+  final static String XMLHEADER = 
+            IBMJAVA?"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><configuration>":
+  "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?><configuration>";
 
   @Override
   protected void setUp() throws Exception {
@@ -327,8 +331,8 @@ public void testWriteXml() throws IOException {
     ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); 
     conf.writeXml(baos);
     String result = baos.toString();
-    assertTrue("Result has proper header", result.startsWith(
-        "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?><configuration>"));
+    assertTrue("Result has proper header", result.startsWith(XMLHEADER));
+	  
     assertTrue("Result has proper footer", result.endsWith("</configuration>"));
   }