diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
index 2d52607b77..a2db56bfb2 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@
 
 # The java implementation to use.
 export JAVA_HOME=${JAVA_HOME}
+
+# The jsvc implementation to use. Jsvc is required to run secure datanodes.
+#export JSVC_HOME=${JSVC_HOME}
+
 export HADOOP_CONF_DIR=${HADOOP_CONF_DIR:-"/etc/hadoop"}
 
 # Extra Java CLASSPATH elements.  Automatically insert capacity-scheduler.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 249d85f44e..6eee9c47b8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ Release 0.23.3 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-2676. Remove Avro RPC. (suresh)
 
+    HDFS-2303. Unbundle jsvc. (Roman Shaposhnik and Mingjie Lai via eli)
+
   NEW FEATURES
 
     HDFS-2978. The NameNode should expose name dir statuses via JMX. (atm)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
index 3f85de096b..13103752d3 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
@@ -329,49 +329,6 @@
               </tasks>
             </configuration>
           </execution>
-          <execution>
-            <id>xprepare-package-hadoop-daemon</id>
-            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>run</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <target unless="windows.build">
-                <condition property="commons.daemon.os.name" value="darwin">
-                    <os name="Mac OS X"/>
-                </condition>
-                <condition property="commons.daemon.os.arch" value="universal">
-                    <os name="Mac OS X"/>
-                </condition>
-                <condition property="commons.daemon.os.name" value="linux">
-                    <os name="Linux" />
-                </condition>
-                <!-- Set commons.daemon.os.arch to either i686 or x86_64 for GNU/Linux -->
-                <condition property="commons.daemon.os.arch" value="x86_64">
-                    <os name="Linux" arch="amd64"/>
-                </condition>
-                <condition property="commons.daemon.os.arch" value="i686">
-                    <os name="Linux" /> <!-- This is a guess -->
-                </condition>
-                <property name="commons.daemon.tar.name"
-                          value="commons-daemon-${commons-daemon.version}-bin-${commons.daemon.os.name}-${commons.daemon.os.arch}.tar.gz"/>
-
-                <mkdir dir="downloads"/>
-                <get src="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/daemon/binaries/${commons-daemon.version}/${commons.daemon.os.name}/${commons.daemon.tar.name}"
-                    dest="downloads/${commons.daemon.tar.name}" verbose="true" skipexisting="true"/>
-                <delete dir="${project.build.directory}/commons-daemon.staging"/>
-                <mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/commons-daemon.staging"/>
-                <untar compression="gzip" src="${basedir}/downloads/${commons.daemon.tar.name}"
-                       dest="${project.build.directory}/commons-daemon.staging"/>
-                <copy file="${project.build.directory}/commons-daemon.staging/jsvc"
-                      todir="${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}/libexec"
-                      verbose="true"/>
-                <chmod perm="ugo+x" type="file">
-                  <fileset file="${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}/libexec/jsvc"/>
-                </chmod>
-              </target>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
index a01c939e42..9bcff9d418 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
@@ -133,7 +133,14 @@ if [ "$starting_secure_dn" = "true" ]; then
    HADOOP_SECURE_DN_PID="$HADOOP_PID_DIR/hadoop_secure_dn.pid"
   fi
 
-  exec "$HADOOP_HDFS_HOME/libexec/jsvc" \
+  JSVC=$JSVC_HOME/jsvc
+  if [ ! -f $JSVC ]; then
+    echo "JSVC_HOME is not set correctly so jsvc can not be found. Jsvc is required to run secure datanodes. "
+    echo "Please download and install jsvc from http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/daemon/binaries/ "\
+      "and set JSVC_HOME to the directory containing the jsvc binary."
+    exit
+  fi
+  exec "$JSVC" \
            -Dproc_$COMMAND -outfile "$HADOOP_LOG_DIR/jsvc.out" \
            -errfile "$HADOOP_LOG_DIR/jsvc.err" \
            -pidfile "$HADOOP_SECURE_DN_PID" \