diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 68913bc3d7..bb2eca5387 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -494,6 +494,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-7713. dfs -count -q should label output column (Jonathan Allen
     via aw)
 
+    HADOOP-11819. HttpServerFunctionalTest#prepareTestWebapp should create web
+    app directory if it does not exist. (Rohith via vinayakumarb)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-11785. Reduce the number of listStatus operation in distcp
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/http/HttpServerFunctionalTest.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/http/HttpServerFunctionalTest.java
index 4a4de41100..faa27a7f60 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/http/HttpServerFunctionalTest.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/http/HttpServerFunctionalTest.java
@@ -123,11 +123,13 @@ protected static void prepareTestWebapp() {
     File testWebappDir = new File(webapps +
         File.separatorChar + TEST);
     try {
-    if (!testWebappDir.exists()) {
-      fail("Test webapp dir " + testWebappDir.getCanonicalPath() + " missing");
-    }
-    }
-    catch (IOException e) {
+      if (!testWebappDir.exists()) {
+        if (!testWebappDir.mkdirs()) {
+          fail("Test webapp dir " + testWebappDir.getCanonicalPath()
+              + " can not be created");
+        }
+      }
+    } catch (IOException e) {
     }
   }