diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java
index 10a38f63c3a1..5320f5cc046c 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java
@@ -133,6 +133,9 @@ public enum OperationStatusCode {
   /** Cluster is in distributed mode or not */
   public static final String CLUSTER_DISTRIBUTED = "hbase.cluster.distributed";
 
+  /** Config for balancing the cluster parallel*/
+  public static final String BALANCE_PARALLEL_REGIONS = "hbase.master.balance.parallel.regions";
+
   /** Config for pluggable load balancers */
   public static final String HBASE_MASTER_LOADBALANCER_CLASS = "hbase.master.loadbalancer.class";
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index 1791ce4c4a55..dcfdd7b482e5 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -409,6 +409,7 @@ public class HMaster extends HRegionServer implements MasterServices {
 
   // Cached clusterId on stand by masters to serve clusterID requests from clients.
   private final CachedClusterId cachedClusterId;
+  private int balanceParallelRegions;
 
   /**
    * Initializes the HMaster. The steps are as follows:
@@ -484,6 +485,7 @@ public HMaster(final Configuration conf) throws IOException {
       this.activeMasterManager = createActiveMasterManager(zooKeeper, serverName, this);
 
       cachedClusterId = new CachedClusterId(this, conf);
+      this.balanceParallelRegions = conf.getInt(HConstants.BALANCE_PARALLEL_REGIONS, 5);
     } catch (Throwable t) {
       // Make sure we log the exception. HMaster is often started via reflection and the
       // cause of failed startup is lost.
@@ -1763,10 +1765,9 @@ public boolean balance(boolean force) throws IOException {
         // ignore the force flag in that case
         boolean metaInTransition = assignmentManager.isMetaRegionInTransition();
         List<RegionStateNode> toPrint = regionsInTransition;
-        int max = 5;
         boolean truncated = false;
-        if (regionsInTransition.size() > max) {
-          toPrint = regionsInTransition.subList(0, max);
+        if (regionsInTransition.size() > this.balanceParallelRegions) {
+          toPrint = regionsInTransition.subList(0, this.balanceParallelRegions);
           truncated = true;
         }
         if (!force || metaInTransition) {