diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
index be8708c552..37e6e4acac 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
@@ -19,3 +19,5 @@ HDFS-2231. Configuration changes for HA namenode. (suresh)
 HDFS-2418. Change ConfiguredFailoverProxyProvider to take advantage of HDFS-2231. (atm)
 
 HDFS-2393. Mark appropriate methods of ClientProtocol with the idempotent annotation. (atm)
+
+HDFS-2523. Small NN fixes to include HAServiceProtocol and prevent NPE on shutdown. (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
index 456f8d6b75..4eb080105f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNode.java
@@ -572,7 +572,9 @@ public void stop() {
       stopRequested = true;
     }
     try {
-      state.exitState(haContext);
+      if (state != null) {
+        state.exitState(haContext);
+      }
     } catch (ServiceFailedException e) {
       LOG.warn("Encountered exception while exiting state ", e);
     }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
index d79614f7d4..6546b8fe06 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.PermissionStatus;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys.*;
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.ha.HAServiceProtocol;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ha.HealthCheckFailedException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ha.ServiceFailedException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HDFSPolicyProvider;
@@ -156,6 +157,7 @@ public NameNodeRpcServer(Configuration conf, NameNode nn)
     this.server.addProtocol(RefreshAuthorizationPolicyProtocol.class, this);
     this.server.addProtocol(RefreshUserMappingsProtocol.class, this);
     this.server.addProtocol(GetUserMappingsProtocol.class, this);
+    this.server.addProtocol(HAServiceProtocol.class, this);
     
 
     // set service-level authorization security policy
@@ -225,6 +227,8 @@ public long getProtocolVersion(String protocol,
       return RefreshUserMappingsProtocol.versionID;
     } else if (protocol.equals(GetUserMappingsProtocol.class.getName())){
       return GetUserMappingsProtocol.versionID;
+    } else if (protocol.equals(HAServiceProtocol.class.getName())) {
+      return HAServiceProtocol.versionID;
     } else {
       throw new IOException("Unknown protocol to name node: " + protocol);
     }