diff --git a/hadoop-ozone/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/shell/Shell.java b/hadoop-ozone/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/shell/Shell.java
index ef7594333262..97e160651bbc 100644
--- a/hadoop-ozone/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/shell/Shell.java
+++ b/hadoop-ozone/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/shell/Shell.java
@@ -29,11 +29,22 @@
  */
 public abstract class Shell extends GenericCli {
 
-  public static final String OZONE_URI_DESCRIPTION = "Ozone URI could start "
-      + "with o3:// or without prefix. URI may contain the host/serviceId "
-      + "and port of the OM server. Both are optional. "
-      + "If they are not specified it will be identified from "
-      + "the config files.";
+  public static final String OZONE_URI_DESCRIPTION =
+      "Ozone URI could either be a full URI or short URI.\n" +
+          "Full URI should start with o3://, in case of non-HA\nclusters it " +
+          "should be followed by the host name and\noptionally the port " +
+          "number. In case of HA clusters\nthe service id should be used. " +
+          "Service id provides a\nlogical name for multiple hosts and it is " +
+          "defined\nin the property ozone.om.service.ids.\n" +
+          "Example of a full URI with host name and port number\nfor a key:" +
+          "\no3://omhostname:9862/vol1/bucket1/key1\n" +
+          "With a service id for a volume:" +
+          "\no3://omserviceid/vol1/\n" +
+          "Short URI should start from the volume." +
+          "\nExample of a short URI for a bucket:" +
+          "\nvol1/bucket1\n" +
+          "Any unspecified information will be identified from\n" +
+          "the config files.\n";
 
   public Shell() {
   }