diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index a0554b930d..de6df42d03 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -268,6 +268,9 @@ Release 0.23.1 - Unreleased
     MAPREDUCE-3756. Made single shuffle limit configurable. (Hitesh Shah via
     acmurthy) 
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3811. Made jobclient-to-AM retries configurable. (sseth via
+    acmurthy) 
+
   BUG FIXES
 
     MAPREDUCE-3221. Reenabled the previously ignored test in TestSubmitJob
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
index c60fe25c2d..9af6981c62 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
@@ -320,6 +320,13 @@ public interface MRJobConfig {
 
   public static final String MR_AM_PREFIX = MR_PREFIX + "am.";
 
+  /** The number of client retires to the AM - before reconnecting to the RM
+   * to fetch Application State. 
+   */
+  public static final String MR_CLIENT_TO_AM_IPC_MAX_RETRIES = 
+    MR_PREFIX + "client-am.ipc.max-retries";
+  public static final int DEFAULT_MR_CLIENT_TO_AM_IPC_MAX_RETRIES = 3;
+  
   /** The staging directory for map reduce.*/
   public static final String MR_AM_STAGING_DIR = 
     MR_AM_PREFIX+"staging-dir";
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
index 6681b1a927..80406132a4 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
@@ -1255,4 +1255,11 @@
     heartbeats to the ResourceManager</description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>yarn.app.mapreduce.client-am.ipc.max-retries</name>
+  <value>1</value>
+  <description>The number of client retries to the AM - before reconnecting
+    to the RM to fetch Application Status.</description>
+</property>
+
 </configuration>
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/ClientServiceDelegate.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/ClientServiceDelegate.java
index 8186dcd6a7..b308c1a074 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/ClientServiceDelegate.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/ClientServiceDelegate.java
@@ -101,7 +101,9 @@ public ClientServiceDelegate(Configuration conf, ResourceMgrDelegate rm,
     this.conf = new Configuration(conf); // Cloning for modifying.
     // For faster redirects from AM to HS.
     this.conf.setInt(
-        CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_MAX_RETRIES_KEY, 3);
+        CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.IPC_CLIENT_CONNECT_MAX_RETRIES_KEY,
+        this.conf.getInt(MRJobConfig.MR_CLIENT_TO_AM_IPC_MAX_RETRIES,
+            MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_MR_CLIENT_TO_AM_IPC_MAX_RETRIES));
     this.rm = rm;
     this.jobId = jobId;
     this.historyServerProxy = historyServerProxy;