diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index ecfc996d11..3aa7c25db8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -262,6 +262,9 @@ Release 2.0.3-alpha - Unreleased
     HDFS-3483. Better error message when hdfs fsck is run against a ViewFS
     config. (Stephen Fritz via atm)
 
+    HDFS-3682. MiniDFSCluster#init should provide more info when it fails.
+    (todd via eli)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
index 3bb65c3331..0c238581ba 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
@@ -624,14 +624,20 @@ private void initMiniDFSCluster(
     }
     
     federation = nnTopology.isFederated();
-    createNameNodesAndSetConf(
-        nnTopology, manageNameDfsDirs, manageNameDfsSharedDirs,
-        enableManagedDfsDirsRedundancy,
-        format, operation, clusterId, conf);
-    
+    try {
+      createNameNodesAndSetConf(
+          nnTopology, manageNameDfsDirs, manageNameDfsSharedDirs,
+          enableManagedDfsDirsRedundancy,
+          format, operation, clusterId, conf);
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.error("IOE creating namenodes. Permissions dump:\n" +
+          createPermissionsDiagnosisString(data_dir));
+      throw ioe;
+    }
     if (format) {
       if (data_dir.exists() && !FileUtil.fullyDelete(data_dir)) {
-        throw new IOException("Cannot remove data directory: " + data_dir);
+        throw new IOException("Cannot remove data directory: " + data_dir +
+            createPermissionsDiagnosisString(data_dir));
       }
     }
     
@@ -647,6 +653,27 @@ private void initMiniDFSCluster(
     ProxyUsers.refreshSuperUserGroupsConfiguration(conf);
   }
   
+  /**
+   * @return a debug string which can help diagnose an error of why
+   * a given directory might have a permissions error in the context
+   * of a test case
+   */
+  private String createPermissionsDiagnosisString(File path) {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    while (path != null) { 
+      sb.append("path '" + path + "': ").append("\n");
+      sb.append("\tabsolute:").append(path.getAbsolutePath()).append("\n");
+      sb.append("\tpermissions: ");
+      sb.append(path.isDirectory() ? "d": "-");
+      sb.append(path.canRead() ? "r" : "-");
+      sb.append(path.canWrite() ? "w" : "-");
+      sb.append(path.canExecute() ? "x" : "-");
+      sb.append("\n");
+      path = path.getParentFile();
+    }
+    return sb.toString();
+  }
+
   private void createNameNodesAndSetConf(MiniDFSNNTopology nnTopology,
       boolean manageNameDfsDirs, boolean manageNameDfsSharedDirs,
       boolean enableManagedDfsDirsRedundancy, boolean format,