diff --git a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClient.java b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClient.java
index 6770eee089cf4..b0817217a9902 100644
--- a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClient.java
+++ b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClient.java
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ public void shutdown() throws Exception {
 			}
 
 			if (highAvailabilityServices != null) {
-				highAvailabilityServices.closeAndCleanupAllData();
+				highAvailabilityServices.close();
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/flink-clients/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClientTest.java b/flink-clients/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClientTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..3879fa3c5c07b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flink-clients/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/client/program/ClusterClientTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.flink.client.program;
+
+import org.apache.flink.configuration.Configuration;
+import org.apache.flink.runtime.highavailability.HighAvailabilityServices;
+import org.apache.flink.util.TestLogger;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.never;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
+
+public class ClusterClientTest extends TestLogger {
+
+	/**
+	 * FLINK-6641
+	 *
+	 * Tests that the {@link ClusterClient} does not clean up HA data when being shut down.
+	 */
+	@Test
+	public void testClusterClientShutdown() throws Exception {
+		Configuration config = new Configuration();
+		HighAvailabilityServices highAvailabilityServices = mock(HighAvailabilityServices.class);
+
+		ClusterClient clusterClient = new StandaloneClusterClient(config, highAvailabilityServices);
+
+		clusterClient.shutdown();
+
+		// check that the client does not clean up HA data but closes the services
+		verify(highAvailabilityServices, never()).closeAndCleanupAllData();
+		verify(highAvailabilityServices).close();
+	}
+}