diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index a285ffef15..450ccfaa40 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -347,6 +347,9 @@ Release 2.5.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-10462. DF#getFilesystem is not parsing the command output. 
     (Akira AJISAKA via umamahesh)
 
+    HADOOP-10468. TestMetricsSystemImpl.testMultiThreadedPublish fails
+    intermediately. (wheat9)
+
 Release 2.4.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/MetricsConfig.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/MetricsConfig.java
index e4b5580536..2c236bc533 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/MetricsConfig.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/MetricsConfig.java
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ class MetricsConfig extends SubsetConfiguration {
   private ClassLoader pluginLoader;
 
   MetricsConfig(Configuration c, String prefix) {
-    super(c, prefix.toLowerCase(Locale.US), ".");
+    super(c, prefix, ".");
   }
 
   static MetricsConfig create(String prefix) {
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestGangliaMetrics.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestGangliaMetrics.java
index 7294ee9c27..178719589b 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestGangliaMetrics.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestGangliaMetrics.java
@@ -60,11 +60,12 @@ public class TestGangliaMetrics {
   @Test
   public void testTagsForPrefix() throws Exception {
     ConfigBuilder cb = new ConfigBuilder()
-      .add("test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.all", "*")
-      .add("test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.some", "NumActiveSinks, NumActiveSources")
-      .add("test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.none", "");
+      .add("Test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.all", "*")
+      .add("Test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.some", "NumActiveSinks, " +
+              "NumActiveSources")
+      .add("Test.sink.ganglia.tagsForPrefix.none", "");
     GangliaSink30 sink = new GangliaSink30();
-    sink.init(cb.subset("test.sink.ganglia"));
+    sink.init(cb.subset("Test.sink.ganglia"));
 
     List<MetricsTag> tags = new ArrayList<MetricsTag>();
     tags.add(new MetricsTag(MsInfo.Context, "all"));
@@ -97,8 +98,8 @@ public void testTagsForPrefix() throws Exception {
   
   @Test public void testGangliaMetrics2() throws Exception {
     ConfigBuilder cb = new ConfigBuilder().add("default.period", 10)
-        .add("test.sink.gsink30.context", "test") // filter out only "test"
-        .add("test.sink.gsink31.context", "test") // filter out only "test"
+        .add("Test.sink.gsink30.context", "test") // filter out only "test"
+        .add("Test.sink.gsink31.context", "test") // filter out only "test"
         .save(TestMetricsConfig.getTestFilename("hadoop-metrics2-test"));
 
     MetricsSystemImpl ms = new MetricsSystemImpl("Test");
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestMetricsSystemImpl.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestMetricsSystemImpl.java
index 6d9024e3ab..49a54af599 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestMetricsSystemImpl.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/impl/TestMetricsSystemImpl.java
@@ -88,11 +88,11 @@ public static class TestSink implements MetricsSink {
     DefaultMetricsSystem.shutdown();
     new ConfigBuilder().add("*.period", 8)
         //.add("test.sink.plugin.urls", getPluginUrlsAsString())
-        .add("test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
-        .add("test.*.source.filter.exclude", "s0")
-        .add("test.source.s1.metric.filter.exclude", "X*")
-        .add("test.sink.sink1.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
-        .add("test.sink.sink2.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
+        .add("Test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
+        .add("Test.*.source.filter.exclude", "s0")
+        .add("Test.source.s1.metric.filter.exclude", "X*")
+        .add("Test.sink.sink1.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
+        .add("Test.sink.sink2.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
         .save(TestMetricsConfig.getTestFilename("hadoop-metrics2-test"));
     MetricsSystemImpl ms = new MetricsSystemImpl("Test");
     ms.start();
@@ -130,11 +130,11 @@ public static class TestSink implements MetricsSink {
     DefaultMetricsSystem.shutdown(); 
     new ConfigBuilder().add("*.period", 8)
         //.add("test.sink.plugin.urls", getPluginUrlsAsString())
-        .add("test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
-        .add("test.*.source.filter.exclude", "s0")
-        .add("test.source.s1.metric.filter.exclude", "X*")
-        .add("test.sink.sink1.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
-        .add("test.sink.sink2.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
+        .add("Test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
+        .add("Test.*.source.filter.exclude", "s0")
+        .add("Test.source.s1.metric.filter.exclude", "X*")
+        .add("Test.sink.sink1.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
+        .add("Test.sink.sink2.metric.filter.exclude", "Y*")
         .save(TestMetricsConfig.getTestFilename("hadoop-metrics2-test"));
     MetricsSystemImpl ms = new MetricsSystemImpl("Test");
     ms.start();
@@ -167,12 +167,13 @@ public static class TestSink implements MetricsSink {
   }
   
   @Test public void testMultiThreadedPublish() throws Exception {
+    final int numThreads = 10;
     new ConfigBuilder().add("*.period", 80)
-      .add("test.sink.Collector.queue.capacity", "20")
+      .add("Test.sink.Collector." + MetricsConfig.QUEUE_CAPACITY_KEY,
+              numThreads)
       .save(TestMetricsConfig.getTestFilename("hadoop-metrics2-test"));
     final MetricsSystemImpl ms = new MetricsSystemImpl("Test");
     ms.start();
-    final int numThreads = 10;
     final CollectingSink sink = new CollectingSink(numThreads);
     ms.registerSink("Collector",
         "Collector of values from all threads.", sink);
@@ -279,10 +280,10 @@ public void flush() {
 
   @Test public void testHangingSink() {
     new ConfigBuilder().add("*.period", 8)
-      .add("test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
-      .add("test.sink.hanging.retry.delay", "1")
-      .add("test.sink.hanging.retry.backoff", "1.01")
-      .add("test.sink.hanging.retry.count", "0")
+      .add("Test.sink.test.class", TestSink.class.getName())
+      .add("Test.sink.hanging.retry.delay", "1")
+      .add("Test.sink.hanging.retry.backoff", "1.01")
+      .add("Test.sink.hanging.retry.count", "0")
       .save(TestMetricsConfig.getTestFilename("hadoop-metrics2-test"));
     MetricsSystemImpl ms = new MetricsSystemImpl("Test");
     ms.start();