diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 5b557b9a06..3ba295873f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -293,6 +293,9 @@ Release 2.3.0 - UNRELEASED
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
+    HADOOP 9871. Fix intermittent findbugs warnings in DefaultMetricsSystem.
+    (Junping Du via llu)
+
     HADOOP-9319. Update bundled LZ4 source to r99. (Binglin Chang via llu)
 
     HADOOP-9241. DU refresh interval is not configurable (harsh)
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/lib/DefaultMetricsSystem.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/lib/DefaultMetricsSystem.java
index ce38a95b21..be785b9854 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/lib/DefaultMetricsSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/metrics2/lib/DefaultMetricsSystem.java
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ public enum DefaultMetricsSystem {
   @VisibleForTesting
   volatile boolean miniClusterMode = false;
   
-  final UniqueNames mBeanNames = new UniqueNames();
-  final UniqueNames sourceNames = new UniqueNames();
+  transient final UniqueNames mBeanNames = new UniqueNames();
+  transient final UniqueNames sourceNames = new UniqueNames();
 
   /**
    * Convenience method to initialize the metrics system