diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 6a5d9ce4db..fbd1d596c0 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -245,6 +245,9 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
     HDFS-5715. Use Snapshot ID to indicate the corresponding Snapshot for a
     FileDiff/DirectoryDiff. (jing9)
 
+    HDFS-5721. sharedEditsImage in Namenode#initializeSharedEdits() should be 
+    closed before method returns. (Ted Yu via junping_du)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-5349. DNA_CACHE and DNA_UNCACHE should be by blockId only. (cmccabe)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
index f5cda802c8..8a9cbd1b5e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
@@ -619,8 +619,14 @@ public static FSNamesystem loadFromDisk(Configuration conf)
 
     long loadStart = now();
     String nameserviceId = DFSUtil.getNamenodeNameServiceId(conf);
-    namesystem.loadFSImage(startOpt, fsImage,
-      HAUtil.isHAEnabled(conf, nameserviceId));
+    try {
+      namesystem.loadFSImage(startOpt, fsImage,
+        HAUtil.isHAEnabled(conf, nameserviceId));
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.warn("Encountered exception loading fsimage", ioe);
+      fsImage.close();
+      throw ioe;
+    }
     long timeTakenToLoadFSImage = now() - loadStart;
     LOG.info("Finished loading FSImage in " + timeTakenToLoadFSImage + " msecs");
     NameNodeMetrics nnMetrics = NameNode.getNameNodeMetrics();
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 4b2bd66d1f..12e26f1fdb 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
@@ -816,14 +816,20 @@ private static boolean format(Configuration conf, boolean force,
     System.out.println("Formatting using clusterid: " + clusterId);
     
     FSImage fsImage = new FSImage(conf, nameDirsToFormat, editDirsToFormat);
-    FSNamesystem fsn = new FSNamesystem(conf, fsImage);
-    fsImage.getEditLog().initJournalsForWrite();
-    
-    if (!fsImage.confirmFormat(force, isInteractive)) {
-      return true; // aborted
+    try {
+      FSNamesystem fsn = new FSNamesystem(conf, fsImage);
+      fsImage.getEditLog().initJournalsForWrite();
+
+      if (!fsImage.confirmFormat(force, isInteractive)) {
+        return true; // aborted
+      }
+
+      fsImage.format(fsn, clusterId);
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.warn("Encountered exception during format: ", ioe);
+      fsImage.close();
+      throw ioe;
     }
-    
-    fsImage.format(fsn, clusterId);
     return false;
   }
 
@@ -897,6 +903,7 @@ private static boolean initializeSharedEdits(Configuration conf,
     }
 
     NNStorage existingStorage = null;
+    FSImage sharedEditsImage = null;
     try {
       FSNamesystem fsns =
           FSNamesystem.loadFromDisk(getConfigurationWithoutSharedEdits(conf));
@@ -906,7 +913,7 @@ private static boolean initializeSharedEdits(Configuration conf,
       
       List<URI> sharedEditsDirs = FSNamesystem.getSharedEditsDirs(conf);
       
-      FSImage sharedEditsImage = new FSImage(conf,
+      sharedEditsImage = new FSImage(conf,
           Lists.<URI>newArrayList(),
           sharedEditsDirs);
       sharedEditsImage.getEditLog().initJournalsForWrite();
@@ -934,6 +941,13 @@ private static boolean initializeSharedEdits(Configuration conf,
       LOG.error("Could not initialize shared edits dir", ioe);
       return true; // aborted
     } finally {
+      if (sharedEditsImage != null) {
+        try {
+          sharedEditsImage.close();
+        }  catch (IOException ioe) {
+          LOG.warn("Could not close sharedEditsImage", ioe);
+        }
+      }
       // Have to unlock storage explicitly for the case when we're running in a
       // unit test, which runs in the same JVM as NNs.
       if (existingStorage != null) {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/BootstrapStandby.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/BootstrapStandby.java
index 484eb45cc0..ac0761d41f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/BootstrapStandby.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/ha/BootstrapStandby.java
@@ -190,24 +190,29 @@ private int doRun() throws IOException {
     // Load the newly formatted image, using all of the directories (including shared
     // edits)
     FSImage image = new FSImage(conf);
-    image.getStorage().setStorageInfo(storage);
-    image.initEditLog();
-    assert image.getEditLog().isOpenForRead() :
+    try {
+      image.getStorage().setStorageInfo(storage);
+      image.initEditLog();
+      assert image.getEditLog().isOpenForRead() :
         "Expected edit log to be open for read";
-    
-    // Ensure that we have enough edits already in the shared directory to
-    // start up from the last checkpoint on the active.
-    if (!checkLogsAvailableForRead(image, imageTxId, curTxId)) {
-      return ERR_CODE_LOGS_UNAVAILABLE;
-    }
-    
-    image.getStorage().writeTransactionIdFileToStorage(curTxId);
 
-    // Download that checkpoint into our storage directories.
-    MD5Hash hash = TransferFsImage.downloadImageToStorage(
+      // Ensure that we have enough edits already in the shared directory to
+      // start up from the last checkpoint on the active.
+      if (!checkLogsAvailableForRead(image, imageTxId, curTxId)) {
+        return ERR_CODE_LOGS_UNAVAILABLE;
+      }
+
+      image.getStorage().writeTransactionIdFileToStorage(curTxId);
+
+      // Download that checkpoint into our storage directories.
+      MD5Hash hash = TransferFsImage.downloadImageToStorage(
         otherHttpAddr, imageTxId,
         storage, true);
-    image.saveDigestAndRenameCheckpointImage(imageTxId, hash);
+      image.saveDigestAndRenameCheckpointImage(imageTxId, hash);
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      image.close();
+      throw ioe;
+    }
     return 0;
   }