diff --git a/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/HFileOutputFormat2.java b/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/HFileOutputFormat2.java
index 7d9da905f424..0e81c95677c3 100644
--- a/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/HFileOutputFormat2.java
+++ b/hbase-mapreduce/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/HFileOutputFormat2.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.HStoreFile.MAJOR_COMPACTION_KEY;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.URLDecoder;
@@ -590,7 +591,7 @@ private static void writePartitions(Configuration conf, Path partitionsPath,
   public static void configureIncrementalLoad(Job job, Table table, RegionLocator regionLocator)
     throws IOException {
     configureIncrementalLoad(job, table.getDescriptor(), regionLocator);
-    configureRemoteCluster(job, table.getConfiguration());
+    configureForRemoteCluster(job, table.getConfiguration());
   }
 
   /**
@@ -776,8 +777,34 @@ public static void configureIncrementalLoadMap(Job job, TableDescriptor tableDes
    * @see #REMOTE_CLUSTER_ZOOKEEPER_QUORUM_CONF_KEY
    * @see #REMOTE_CLUSTER_ZOOKEEPER_CLIENT_PORT_CONF_KEY
    * @see #REMOTE_CLUSTER_ZOOKEEPER_ZNODE_PARENT_CONF_KEY
+   * @deprecated As of release 2.6.4, this will be removed in HBase 4.0.0 Use
+   *             {@link #configureForRemoteCluster(Job, Configuration)} instead.
    */
-  public static void configureRemoteCluster(Job job, Configuration clusterConf) throws IOException {
+  @Deprecated
+  public static void configureRemoteCluster(Job job, Configuration clusterConf) {
+    try {
+      configureForRemoteCluster(job, clusterConf);
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      LOG.error("Configure remote cluster error.", e);
+      throw new UncheckedIOException("Configure remote cluster error.", e);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Configure HBase cluster key for remote cluster to load region location for locality-sensitive
+   * if it's enabled. It's not necessary to call this method explicitly when the cluster key for
+   * HBase cluster to be used to load region location is configured in the job configuration. Call
+   * this method when another HBase cluster key is configured in the job configuration. For example,
+   * you should call when you load data from HBase cluster A using {@link TableInputFormat} and
+   * generate hfiles for HBase cluster B. Otherwise, HFileOutputFormat2 fetch location from cluster
+   * A and locality-sensitive won't working correctly. If authentication is enabled, it obtains the
+   * token for the specific cluster.
+   * @param job         which has configuration to be updated
+   * @param clusterConf which contains cluster key of the HBase cluster to be locality-sensitive
+   * @throws IOException Exception while initializing cluster credentials
+   */
+  public static void configureForRemoteCluster(Job job, Configuration clusterConf)
+    throws IOException {
     Configuration conf = job.getConfiguration();
 
     if (!conf.getBoolean(LOCALITY_SENSITIVE_CONF_KEY, DEFAULT_LOCALITY_SENSITIVE)) {