diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 916e327e89..76cd03b232 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -658,6 +658,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-8174. Update replication count to live rep count in fsck report. (J.Andreina)
 
+    HDFS-6291. FSImage may be left unclosed in BootstrapStandby#doRun()
+    (Sanghyun Yun via vinayakumarb)
+
 Release 2.7.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
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 0accf5307c..88d9a6ad0d 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
@@ -320,8 +320,9 @@ public class BootstrapStandby implements Tool, Configurable {
       image.saveDigestAndRenameCheckpointImage(NameNodeFile.IMAGE, imageTxId,
           hash);
     } catch (IOException ioe) {
-      image.close();
       throw ioe;
+    } finally {
+      image.close();
     }
     return 0;
   }