diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
index c2568eb4b60acbdfaa889000ca31c8868db5d1dd..cfaebf9ea5050d4a95c10f1cb881f71407cc4839 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
@@ -24,11 +24,10 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileStatus, FileSystem, Path}
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem.Statistics
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf
-import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.{JobContext, TaskAttemptContext}
-import org.apache.hadoop.security.Credentials
-import org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.JobContext
+import org.apache.hadoop.security.{Credentials, UserGroupInformation}
 
-import org.apache.spark.{Logging, SparkContext, SparkConf, SparkException}
+import org.apache.spark.{Logging, SparkConf, SparkException}
 import org.apache.spark.annotation.DeveloperApi
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 
@@ -201,6 +200,37 @@ class SparkHadoopUtil extends Logging {
     val baseStatus = fs.getFileStatus(basePath)
     if (baseStatus.isDir) recurse(basePath) else Array(baseStatus)
   }
+
+  private val HADOOP_CONF_PATTERN = "(\\$\\{hadoopconf-[^\\}\\$\\s]+\\})".r.unanchored
+
+  /**
+   * Substitute variables by looking them up in Hadoop configs. Only variables that match the
+   * ${hadoopconf- .. } pattern are substituted.
+   */
+  def substituteHadoopVariables(text: String, hadoopConf: Configuration): String = {
+    text match {
+      case HADOOP_CONF_PATTERN(matched) => {
+        logDebug(text + " matched " + HADOOP_CONF_PATTERN)
+        val key = matched.substring(13, matched.length() - 1) // remove ${hadoopconf- .. }
+        val eval = Option[String](hadoopConf.get(key))
+          .map { value =>
+            logDebug("Substituted " + matched + " with " + value)
+            text.replace(matched, value)
+          }
+        if (eval.isEmpty) {
+          // The variable was not found in Hadoop configs, so return text as is.
+          text
+        } else {
+          // Continue to substitute more variables.
+          substituteHadoopVariables(eval.get, hadoopConf)
+        }
+      }
+      case _ => {
+        logDebug(text + " didn't match " + HADOOP_CONF_PATTERN)
+        text
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 object SparkHadoopUtil {
diff --git a/docs/running-on-yarn.md b/docs/running-on-yarn.md
index b7e68d4f7171486090e4a70c87908143faa3d0a0..ed5bb263a58092c2f20aa560f38f02996d57875c 100644
--- a/docs/running-on-yarn.md
+++ b/docs/running-on-yarn.md
@@ -87,7 +87,8 @@ Most of the configs are the same for Spark on YARN as for other deployment modes
   <td><code>spark.yarn.historyServer.address</code></td>
   <td>(none)</td>
   <td>
-    The address of the Spark history server (i.e. host.com:18080). The address should not contain a scheme (http://). Defaults to not being set since the history server is an optional service. This address is given to the YARN ResourceManager when the Spark application finishes to link the application from the ResourceManager UI to the Spark history server UI.
+    The address of the Spark history server (i.e. host.com:18080). The address should not contain a scheme (http://). Defaults to not being set since the history server is an optional service. This address is given to the YARN ResourceManager when the Spark application finishes to link the application from the ResourceManager UI to the Spark history server UI. 
+    For this property, YARN properties can be used as variables, and these are substituted by Spark at runtime. For eg, if the Spark history server runs on the same node as the YARN ResourceManager, it can be set to `${hadoopconf-yarn.resourcemanager.hostname}:18080`. 
   </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
diff --git a/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala b/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
index 32bc4e566306256543ea8f44185495501d9faf8e..26259cee7715146d97cec2263c5bf1d33863ce3e 100644
--- a/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
+++ b/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
@@ -223,6 +223,7 @@ private[spark] class ApplicationMaster(
     val appId = client.getAttemptId().getApplicationId().toString()
     val historyAddress =
       sparkConf.getOption("spark.yarn.historyServer.address")
+        .map { text => SparkHadoopUtil.get.substituteHadoopVariables(text, yarnConf) }
         .map { address => s"${address}${HistoryServer.UI_PATH_PREFIX}/${appId}" }
         .getOrElse("")