diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index c1ce60ebd8..e6cd46118e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HDFS-2564. Cleanup unnecessary exceptions thrown and unnecessary casts.
     (Hari Mankude via eli)
 
+    HDFS-2572. Remove unnecessary double-check in DN#getHostName. (harsh)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
     HDFS-2477. Optimize computing the diff between a block report and the
                namenode state. (Tomasz Nykiel via hairong)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index 5cb94d1e83..917fe86206 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -454,11 +454,8 @@ private synchronized void setClusterId(String cid) throws IOException {
 
   private static String getHostName(Configuration config)
       throws UnknownHostException {
-    String name = null;
     // use configured nameserver & interface to get local hostname
-    if (config.get(DFS_DATANODE_HOST_NAME_KEY) != null) {
-      name = config.get(DFS_DATANODE_HOST_NAME_KEY);
-    }
+    String name = config.get(DFS_DATANODE_HOST_NAME_KEY);
     if (name == null) {
       name = DNS
           .getDefaultHost(config.get(DFS_DATANODE_DNS_INTERFACE_KEY,