diff --git a/conf/spark-env.sh.template b/conf/spark-env.sh.template
index 5c1e876ef9afc..7b9c03acd2adc 100755
--- a/conf/spark-env.sh.template
+++ b/conf/spark-env.sh.template
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 # - SPARK_EXECUTOR_CORES, Number of cores for the executors (Default: 1).
 # - SPARK_EXECUTOR_MEMORY, Memory per Executor (e.g. 1000M, 2G) (Default: 1G)
 # - SPARK_DRIVER_MEMORY, Memory for Driver (e.g. 1000M, 2G) (Default: 1G)
+# - SPARK_EXECUTOR_LAUNCH_PREFIX, Command string added in front of Spark executor
 
 # Options for the daemons used in the standalone deploy mode
 # - SPARK_MASTER_HOST, to bind the master to a different IP address or hostname
diff --git a/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala b/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
index 8e0533f39ae53..8df870b3fd852 100644
--- a/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
+++ b/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
@@ -193,7 +193,8 @@ private[yarn] class ExecutorRunnable(
     */
 
     // For log4j configuration to reference
-    javaOpts += ("-Dspark.yarn.app.container.log.dir=" + ApplicationConstants.LOG_DIR_EXPANSION_VAR)
+    javaOpts += ("-Dspark.yarn.app.container.log.dir=" 
+          + ApplicationConstants.LOG_DIR_EXPANSION_VAR)
     YarnCommandBuilderUtils.addPermGenSizeOpt(javaOpts)
 
     val userClassPath = Client.getUserClasspath(sparkConf).flatMap { uri =>
@@ -207,8 +208,14 @@ private[yarn] class ExecutorRunnable(
     }.toSeq
 
     YarnSparkHadoopUtil.addOutOfMemoryErrorArgument(javaOpts)
+
+    // Add support for extra executor prefix.
+    val executorCommandPrefix = (if (sys.env.contains("SPARK_EXECUTOR_LAUNCH_PREFIX"))
+    	sys.env.get("SPARK_EXECUTOR_LAUNCH_PREFIX") else "");
+
     val commands = prefixEnv ++ Seq(
-      YarnSparkHadoopUtil.expandEnvironment(Environment.JAVA_HOME) + "/bin/java",
+      executorCommandPrefix + " " + YarnSparkHadoopUtil.expandEnvironment(Environment.JAVA_HOME) +
+        "/bin/java",
       "-server") ++
       javaOpts ++
       Seq("org.apache.spark.executor.CoarseGrainedExecutorBackend",