diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/sls/SLSRunner.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/sls/SLSRunner.java
index a8d2aa6584bcb..c426d64ec7865 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/sls/SLSRunner.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-sls/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/sls/SLSRunner.java
@@ -998,7 +998,7 @@ public int run(final String[] argv) throws IOException, InterruptedException,
     if (!outputFile.exists() && !outputFile.mkdirs()) {
       System.err.println("ERROR: Cannot create output directory "
           + outputFile.getAbsolutePath());
-      throw new YarnException("Cannot create output directory");
+      throw new IOException("Cannot create output directory");
     }
 
     Set<String> trackedJobSet = new HashSet<String>();