diff --git a/tez-common/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/util/LoggingUtils.java b/tez-common/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/util/LoggingUtils.java
index 42058fa6f0..57575170c6 100644
--- a/tez-common/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/util/LoggingUtils.java
+++ b/tez-common/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/util/LoggingUtils.java
@@ -124,7 +124,11 @@ public static ThreadLocalMap setupLog4j() {
       mdcField.set(null, mdc);
 
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      LOG.warn("Cannot set log4j global MDC, mdcContext won't be applied to log4j's MDC class", e);
+      if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
+        LOG.debug("Cannot set log4j global MDC, mdcContext won't be applied to log4j's MDC class", e);
+      } else {
+        LOG.warn("Cannot set log4j global MDC, mdcContext won't be applied to log4j's MDC class: {}", e.getMessage());
+      }
     }
 
     return mdcContext;