diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
index db543382d799..83918c93735b 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
@@ -64,8 +64,10 @@
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
+import org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.common.util.concurrent.ThreadFactoryBuilder;
 
+
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.shaded.protobuf.generated.AdminProtos.AdminService.BlockingInterface;
 
 /**
@@ -114,6 +116,25 @@ public class HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint extends HBaseReplicationEndpoi
   private boolean dropOnDeletedTables;
   private boolean isSerial = false;
 
+  /*
+   * Some implementations of HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint may require instantiating
+   * different Connection implementations, or initialize it in a different way,
+   * so defining createConnection as protected for possible overridings.
+   */
+  protected Connection createConnection(Configuration conf) throws IOException {
+    return ConnectionFactory.createConnection(conf);
+  }
+
+  /*
+   * Some implementations of HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint may require instantiating
+   * different ReplicationSinkManager implementations, or initialize it in a different way,
+   * so defining createReplicationSinkManager as protected for possible overridings.
+   */
+  protected ReplicationSinkManager createReplicationSinkManager(Connection conn) {
+    return new ReplicationSinkManager((ClusterConnection) conn, this.ctx.getPeerId(),
+      this, this.conf);
+  }
+
   @Override
   public void init(Context context) throws IOException {
     super.init(context);
@@ -133,12 +154,16 @@ public void init(Context context) throws IOException {
     // TODO: This connection is replication specific or we should make it particular to
     // replication and make replication specific settings such as compression or codec to use
     // passing Cells.
-    this.conn = (ClusterConnection) ConnectionFactory.createConnection(this.conf);
+    Connection connection = createConnection(this.conf);
+    //Since createConnection method may be overridden by extending classes, we need to make sure
+    //it's indeed returning a ClusterConnection instance.
+    Preconditions.checkState(connection instanceof ClusterConnection);
+    this.conn = (ClusterConnection) connection;
     this.sleepForRetries =
         this.conf.getLong("replication.source.sleepforretries", 1000);
     this.metrics = context.getMetrics();
     // ReplicationQueueInfo parses the peerId out of the znode for us
-    this.replicationSinkMgr = new ReplicationSinkManager(conn, ctx.getPeerId(), this, this.conf);
+    this.replicationSinkMgr = createReplicationSinkManager(conn);
     // per sink thread pool
     this.maxThreads = this.conf.getInt(HConstants.REPLICATION_SOURCE_MAXTHREADS_KEY,
       HConstants.REPLICATION_SOURCE_MAXTHREADS_DEFAULT);