diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestClusterRestartFailover.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestClusterRestartFailover.java
index a6844fcac091..338173e473c9 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestClusterRestartFailover.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestClusterRestartFailover.java
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/**
+/*
  * 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
@@ -40,8 +40,10 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.assignment.ServerStateNode;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.master.procedure.ServerCrashProcedure;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.procedure2.Procedure;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.HRegionServer;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.LargeTests;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.MasterTests;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.JVMClusterUtil;
 import org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException;
 import org.junit.ClassRule;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ public class TestClusterRestartFailover extends AbstractTestRestartCluster {
 
   private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(TestClusterRestartFailover.class);
 
-  private static CountDownLatch SCP_LATCH;
+  private volatile static CountDownLatch SCP_LATCH;
   private static ServerName SERVER_FOR_TEST;
 
   @Override
@@ -79,7 +81,16 @@ public void test() throws Exception {
     setupCluster();
     setupTable();
 
-    SERVER_FOR_TEST = UTIL.getHBaseCluster().getRegionServer(0).getServerName();
+    // Find server that does not have hbase:namespace on it. This tests holds up SCPs. If it
+    // holds up the server w/ hbase:namespace, the Master initialization will be held up
+    // because this table is not online and test fails.
+    for (JVMClusterUtil.RegionServerThread rst:
+        UTIL.getHBaseCluster().getLiveRegionServerThreads()) {
+      HRegionServer rs = rst.getRegionServer();
+      if (rs.getRegions(TableName.NAMESPACE_TABLE_NAME).isEmpty()) {
+        SERVER_FOR_TEST = rs.getServerName();
+      }
+    }
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> getServerStateNode(SERVER_FOR_TEST) != null);
     ServerStateNode serverNode = getServerStateNode(SERVER_FOR_TEST);
     assertNotNull(serverNode);
@@ -98,8 +109,9 @@ public void test() throws Exception {
     LOG.info("Restarting cluster");
     UTIL.restartHBaseCluster(StartMiniClusterOption.builder().masterClass(HMasterForTest.class)
         .numMasters(1).numRegionServers(3).rsPorts(ports).build());
+    LOG.info("Started cluster");
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> UTIL.getHBaseCluster().getMaster().isInitialized());
-
+    LOG.info("Started cluster master, waiting for {}", SERVER_FOR_TEST);
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> getServerStateNode(SERVER_FOR_TEST) != null);
     serverNode = getServerStateNode(SERVER_FOR_TEST);
     assertFalse("serverNode should not be ONLINE during SCP processing",
@@ -113,6 +125,7 @@ public void test() throws Exception {
           Procedure.NO_PROC_ID);
 
     // Wait the SCP to finish
+    LOG.info("Waiting on latch");
     SCP_LATCH.countDown();
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> procedure.get().isFinished());
 
@@ -126,13 +139,17 @@ public void test() throws Exception {
   }
 
   private void setupCluster() throws Exception {
+    LOG.info("Setup cluster");
     UTIL.startMiniCluster(
         StartMiniClusterOption.builder().masterClass(HMasterForTest.class).numMasters(1)
             .numRegionServers(3).build());
+    LOG.info("Cluster is up");
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> UTIL.getMiniHBaseCluster().getMaster().isInitialized());
+    LOG.info("Master is up");
     // wait for all SCPs finished
     UTIL.waitFor(60000, () -> UTIL.getHBaseCluster().getMaster().getProcedures().stream()
         .noneMatch(p -> p instanceof ServerCrashProcedure));
+    LOG.info("No SCPs");
   }
 
   private void setupTable() throws Exception {