diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index f9c5db4f09..f3d53348d4 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1286,6 +1286,9 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
    MAPREDUCE-2749. Ensure NM registers with RM after starting all its services
    correctly. (Thomas Graves via acmurthy)
 
+   MAPREDUCE-2979. Removed the needless ClientProtocolProvider configuration
+   from the hadoop-mapreduce-client-core module. (Siddharth Seth via vinodkv)
+
 Release 0.22.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.protocol.ClientProtocolProvider b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.protocol.ClientProtocolProvider
deleted file mode 100644
index 0b4d2302ef..0000000000
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.protocol.ClientProtocolProvider
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-#
-#   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-#   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-#   You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-#   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-#   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-#   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-#   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-#   limitations under the License.
-#
-org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobTrackerClientProtocolProvider
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
index e911e19283..f0d534da2a 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
@@ -1172,4 +1172,11 @@
   </description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>yarn.app.mapreduce.am.staging-dir</name>
+  <value>/tmp/hadoop-yarn/${user.name}/staging</value>
+  <description>The staging dir used while submitting jobs.
+  </description>
+</property>
+
 </configuration>