diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 9aabd342ac..1caa8c59ee 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1002,6 +1002,9 @@ Release 2.7.1 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-8572. DN always uses HTTP/localhost@REALM principals in SPNEGO.
     (wheat9)
 
+    HDFS-8596. TestDistributedFileSystem et al tests are broken in branch-2
+    due to incorrect setting of "datanode" attribute. (Yongjun Zhang)
+
 Release 2.7.0 - 2015-04-20
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index ed2925b722..3bd131ec56 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -762,7 +762,7 @@ private void startInfoServer(Configuration conf)
     ServerSocketChannel httpServerChannel = secureResources != null ?
         secureResources.getHttpServerChannel() : null;
 
-    this.httpServer = new DatanodeHttpServer(conf, httpServerChannel);
+    this.httpServer = new DatanodeHttpServer(conf, this, httpServerChannel);
     httpServer.start();
     if (httpServer.getHttpAddress() != null) {
       infoPort = httpServer.getHttpAddress().getPort();
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/web/DatanodeHttpServer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/web/DatanodeHttpServer.java
index e9ad92f882..62c98e7d24 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/web/DatanodeHttpServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/web/DatanodeHttpServer.java
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ public class DatanodeHttpServer implements Closeable {
   static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(DatanodeHttpServer.class);
 
   public DatanodeHttpServer(final Configuration conf,
+      final DataNode datanode,
       final ServerSocketChannel externalHttpChannel)
     throws IOException {
     this.conf = conf;
@@ -91,7 +92,7 @@ public DatanodeHttpServer(final Configuration conf,
 
     this.infoServer = builder.build();
 
-    this.infoServer.setAttribute("datanode", this);
+    this.infoServer.setAttribute("datanode", datanode);
     this.infoServer.setAttribute(JspHelper.CURRENT_CONF, conf);
     this.infoServer.addServlet(null, "/blockScannerReport",
                                BlockScanner.Servlet.class);