diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index a5941588d2..50b800ced1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -54,10 +54,14 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6510. Adds a way for superusers to impersonate other users
     in a secure environment. (Jitendra Nath Pandey via ddas)
 
-    HADOOP-6421 Adds Symbolic links to FileContext, AbstractFileSystem.
+    HADOOP-6421. Adds Symbolic links to FileContext, AbstractFileSystem.
     It also adds a limited implementation for the local file system
      (RawLocalFs) that allows local symlinks. (Eli Collins via Sanjay Radia)
 
+    HADOOP-6577. Add hidden configuration option "ipc.server.max.response.size"
+    to change the default 1 MB, the maximum size when large IPC handler 
+    response buffer is reset. (suresh)
+
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
     HADOOP-6283. Improve the exception messages thrown by
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeys.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeys.java
index e887231272..b33aa7b308 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeys.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/CommonConfigurationKeys.java
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ public class CommonConfigurationKeys {
   public static final int     IPC_CLIENT_IDLETHRESHOLD_DEFAULT = 4000;
   public static final String  IPC_SERVER_TCPNODELAY_KEY = "ipc.server.tcpnodelay";
   public static final boolean IPC_SERVER_TCPNODELAY_DEFAULT = false;
+  public static final String  IPC_SERVER_RPC_MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE_KEY = 
+                                       "ipc.server.max.response.size";
+  public static final int     IPC_SERVER_RPC_MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE_DEFAULT = 
+                                        1024*1024;
 
   public static final String  HADOOP_RPC_SOCKET_FACTORY_CLASS_DEFAULT_KEY = 
                                        "hadoop.rpc.socket.factory.class.default";
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
index b338b00283..6297ec7a94 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/Server.java
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.CommonConfigurationKeys.*;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.Writable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.WritableUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc.metrics.RpcMetrics;
@@ -104,8 +105,7 @@ public abstract class Server {
    * Initial and max size of response buffer
    */
   static int INITIAL_RESP_BUF_SIZE = 10240;
-  static int MAX_RESP_BUF_SIZE = 1024*1024;
-    
+
   public static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(Server.class);
 
   private static final ThreadLocal<Server> SERVER = new ThreadLocal<Server>();
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@ public static String getRemoteAddress() {
   private SecretManager<TokenIdentifier> secretManager;
 
   private int maxQueueSize;
+  private final int maxRespSize;
   private int socketSendBufferSize;
   private final boolean tcpNoDelay; // if T then disable Nagle's Algorithm
 
@@ -1207,7 +1208,7 @@ public Writable run() throws Exception {
                 : Status.ERROR, value, errorClass, error);
             // Discard the large buf and reset it back to
             // smaller size to freeup heap
-            if (buf.size() > MAX_RESP_BUF_SIZE) {
+            if (buf.size() > maxRespSize) {
               LOG.warn("Large response size " + buf.size() + " for call "
                   + call.toString());
               buf = new ByteArrayOutputStream(INITIAL_RESP_BUF_SIZE);
@@ -1253,6 +1254,8 @@ protected Server(String bindAddress, int port,
     this.handlerCount = handlerCount;
     this.socketSendBufferSize = 0;
     this.maxQueueSize = handlerCount * MAX_QUEUE_SIZE_PER_HANDLER;
+    this.maxRespSize = conf.getInt(IPC_SERVER_RPC_MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE_KEY,
+                                   IPC_SERVER_RPC_MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE_DEFAULT);
     this.callQueue  = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Call>(maxQueueSize); 
     this.maxIdleTime = 2*conf.getInt("ipc.client.connection.maxidletime", 1000);
     this.maxConnectionsToNuke = conf.getInt("ipc.client.kill.max", 10);
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPCServerResponder.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPCServerResponder.java
index e1370fe866..3710198295 100644
--- a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPCServerResponder.java
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/ipc/TestIPCServerResponder.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.CommonConfigurationKeys;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.BytesWritable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.Writable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.net.NetUtils;
@@ -116,8 +117,10 @@ public void run() {
 
   public void testResponseBuffer() throws Exception {
     Server.INITIAL_RESP_BUF_SIZE = 1;
-    Server.MAX_RESP_BUF_SIZE = 1;
+    conf.setInt(CommonConfigurationKeys.IPC_SERVER_RPC_MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE_KEY,
+                1);
     testServerResponder(1, true, 1, 1, 5);
+    conf = new Configuration(); // reset configuration
   }
 
   public void testServerResponder() throws Exception {