diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index da009a4a30..3b37d41a71 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -696,6 +696,8 @@ Branch-2 ( Unreleased changes )
     HDFS-3864. NN does not update internal file mtime for OP_CLOSE when reading
     from the edit log. (atm)
 
+    HDFS-3837. Fix DataNode.recoverBlock findbugs warning. (eli)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-3042 SUBTASKS
 
     HDFS-2185. HDFS portion of ZK-based FailoverController (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/dev-support/findbugsExcludeFile.xml b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/dev-support/findbugsExcludeFile.xml
index 3461d6afe4..7c9f3646e2 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/dev-support/findbugsExcludeFile.xml
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/dev-support/findbugsExcludeFile.xml
@@ -273,4 +273,10 @@
        <Method name="quit" />
        <Bug pattern="DM_EXIT" />
      </Match>
+     <!-- Don't complain about recoverBlock equality check -->
+     <Match>
+       <Class name="org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.datanode.DataNode" />
+       <Method name="recoverBlock" />
+       <Bug pattern="EC_UNRELATED_TYPES" />
+     </Match>
  </FindBugsFilter>