diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 39b83c0b46..75cd81b64f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -295,6 +295,9 @@ Release 2.6.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-6655. Add 'header banner' to 'explorer.html' also in Namenode UI
     (vinayakumarb)
 
+    HDFS-4120. Add a new "-skipSharedEditsCheck" option for BootstrapStandby
+    (Liang Xie and Rakesh R via vinayakumarb)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-6690. Deduplicate xattr names in memory. (wang)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/contrib/bkjournal/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/contrib/bkjournal/TestBootstrapStandbyWithBKJM.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/contrib/bkjournal/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/contrib/bkjournal/TestBootstrapStandbyWithBKJM.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e05009907d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/contrib/bkjournal/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/contrib/bkjournal/TestBootstrapStandbyWithBKJM.java
@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.contrib.bkjournal;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileFilter;
+
+import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DistributedFileSystem;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSCluster;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.MiniDFSNNTopology;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.HdfsConstants.SafeModeAction;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSImageTestUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.NameNode;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.NameNodeAdapter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.ha.BootstrapStandby;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.ha.HATestUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.ha.TestStandbyCheckpoints.SlowCodec;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodecFactory;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.AfterClass;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
+
+public class TestBootstrapStandbyWithBKJM {
+  private static BKJMUtil bkutil;
+  protected MiniDFSCluster cluster;
+
+  @BeforeClass
+  public static void setupBookkeeper() throws Exception {
+    bkutil = new BKJMUtil(3);
+    bkutil.start();
+  }
+
+  @AfterClass
+  public static void teardownBookkeeper() throws Exception {
+    bkutil.teardown();
+  }
+
+  @After
+  public void teardown() {
+    if (cluster != null) {
+      cluster.shutdown();
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setInt(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_CHECKPOINT_CHECK_PERIOD_KEY, 1);
+    conf.setInt(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_CHECKPOINT_TXNS_KEY, 5);
+    conf.setInt(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_HA_TAILEDITS_PERIOD_KEY, 1);
+    conf.set(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_SHARED_EDITS_DIR_KEY, BKJMUtil
+        .createJournalURI("/bootstrapStandby").toString());
+    BKJMUtil.addJournalManagerDefinition(conf);
+    conf.setBoolean(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_IMAGE_COMPRESS_KEY, true);
+    conf.set(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_IMAGE_COMPRESSION_CODEC_KEY,
+        SlowCodec.class.getCanonicalName());
+    CompressionCodecFactory.setCodecClasses(conf,
+        ImmutableList.<Class> of(SlowCodec.class));
+    MiniDFSNNTopology topology = new MiniDFSNNTopology()
+        .addNameservice(new MiniDFSNNTopology.NSConf("ns1").addNN(
+            new MiniDFSNNTopology.NNConf("nn1").setHttpPort(10001)).addNN(
+            new MiniDFSNNTopology.NNConf("nn2").setHttpPort(10002)));
+    cluster = new MiniDFSCluster.Builder(conf).nnTopology(topology)
+        .numDataNodes(1).manageNameDfsSharedDirs(false).build();
+    cluster.waitActive();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * While boostrapping, in_progress transaction entries should be skipped.
+   * Bootstrap usage for BKJM : "-force", "-nonInteractive", "-skipSharedEditsCheck"
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testBootstrapStandbyWithActiveNN() throws Exception {
+    // make nn0 active
+    cluster.transitionToActive(0);
+   
+    // do ops and generate in-progress edit log data
+    Configuration confNN1 = cluster.getConfiguration(1);
+    DistributedFileSystem dfs = (DistributedFileSystem) HATestUtil
+        .configureFailoverFs(cluster, confNN1);
+    for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
+      dfs.mkdirs(new Path("/test" + i));
+    }
+    dfs.close();
+
+    // shutdown nn1 and delete its edit log files
+    cluster.shutdownNameNode(1);
+    deleteEditLogIfExists(confNN1);
+    cluster.getNameNodeRpc(0).setSafeMode(SafeModeAction.SAFEMODE_ENTER, true);
+    cluster.getNameNodeRpc(0).saveNamespace();
+    cluster.getNameNodeRpc(0).setSafeMode(SafeModeAction.SAFEMODE_LEAVE, true);
+
+    // check without -skipSharedEditsCheck, Bootstrap should fail for BKJM
+    // immediately after saveNamespace
+    int rc = BootstrapStandby.run(new String[] { "-force", "-nonInteractive" },
+      confNN1);
+    Assert.assertEquals("Mismatches return code", 6, rc);
+
+    // check with -skipSharedEditsCheck
+    rc = BootstrapStandby.run(new String[] { "-force", "-nonInteractive",
+        "-skipSharedEditsCheck" }, confNN1);
+    Assert.assertEquals("Mismatches return code", 0, rc);
+
+    // Checkpoint as fast as we can, in a tight loop.
+    confNN1.setInt(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_CHECKPOINT_PERIOD_KEY, 1);
+    cluster.restartNameNode(1);
+    cluster.transitionToStandby(1);
+   
+    NameNode nn0 = cluster.getNameNode(0);
+    HATestUtil.waitForStandbyToCatchUp(nn0, cluster.getNameNode(1));
+    long expectedCheckpointTxId = NameNodeAdapter.getNamesystem(nn0)
+        .getFSImage().getMostRecentCheckpointTxId();
+    HATestUtil.waitForCheckpoint(cluster, 1,
+        ImmutableList.of((int) expectedCheckpointTxId));
+
+    // Should have copied over the namespace
+    FSImageTestUtil.assertNNHasCheckpoints(cluster, 1,
+        ImmutableList.of((int) expectedCheckpointTxId));
+    FSImageTestUtil.assertNNFilesMatch(cluster);
+  }
+
+  private void deleteEditLogIfExists(Configuration confNN1) {
+    String editDirs = confNN1.get(DFSConfigKeys.DFS_NAMENODE_EDITS_DIR_KEY);
+    String[] listEditDirs = StringUtils.split(editDirs, ',');
+    Assert.assertTrue("Wrong edit directory path!", listEditDirs.length > 0);
+
+    for (String dir : listEditDirs) {
+      File curDir = new File(dir, "current");
+      File[] listFiles = curDir.listFiles(new FileFilter() {
+        @Override
+        public boolean accept(File f) {
+          if (!f.getName().startsWith("edits")) {
+            return true;
+          }
+          return false;
+        }
+      });
+      if (listFiles != null && listFiles.length > 0) {
+        for (File file : listFiles) {
+          Assert.assertTrue("Failed to delete edit files!", file.delete());
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
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 ed6ff1a8a1..deda30f1ca 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
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ public class BootstrapStandby implements Tool, Configurable {
   
   private boolean force = false;
   private boolean interactive = true;
+  private boolean skipSharedEditsCheck = false;
 
   // Exit/return codes.
   static final int ERR_CODE_FAILED_CONNECT = 2;
@@ -117,6 +118,8 @@ private void parseArgs(String[] args) {
         force = true;
       } else if ("-nonInteractive".equals(arg)) {
         interactive = false;
+      } else if ("-skipSharedEditsCheck".equals(arg)) {
+        skipSharedEditsCheck = true;
       } else {
         printUsage();
         throw new HadoopIllegalArgumentException(
@@ -127,7 +130,7 @@ private void parseArgs(String[] args) {
 
   private void printUsage() {
     System.err.println("Usage: " + this.getClass().getSimpleName() +
-        "[-force] [-nonInteractive]");
+        " [-force] [-nonInteractive] [-skipSharedEditsCheck]");
   }
   
   private NamenodeProtocol createNNProtocolProxy()
@@ -200,7 +203,7 @@ private int doRun() throws IOException {
 
       // 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)) {
+      if (!skipSharedEditsCheck && !checkLogsAvailableForRead(image, imageTxId, curTxId)) {
         return ERR_CODE_LOGS_UNAVAILABLE;
       }