diff --git a/examples/src/main/python/hbase_inputformat.py b/examples/src/main/python/hbase_inputformat.py
index e17819d5feb76..5b82a14fba413 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/python/hbase_inputformat.py
+++ b/examples/src/main/python/hbase_inputformat.py
@@ -54,8 +54,9 @@
 
         Run with example jar:
         ./bin/spark-submit --driver-class-path /path/to/example/jar \
-        /path/to/examples/hbase_inputformat.py <host> <table>
+        /path/to/examples/hbase_inputformat.py <host> <table> [<znode>]
         Assumes you have some data in HBase already, running on <host>, in <table>
+          optionally, you can specify parent znode for your hbase cluster - <znode>
         """, file=sys.stderr)
         exit(-1)
 
@@ -64,6 +65,9 @@
     sc = SparkContext(appName="HBaseInputFormat")
 
     conf = {"hbase.zookeeper.quorum": host, "hbase.mapreduce.inputtable": table}
+    if len(sys.argv) > 3:
+        conf = {"hbase.zookeeper.quorum": host, "zookeeper.znode.parent": sys.argv[3],
+                "hbase.mapreduce.inputtable": table}
     keyConv = "org.apache.spark.examples.pythonconverters.ImmutableBytesWritableToStringConverter"
     valueConv = "org.apache.spark.examples.pythonconverters.HBaseResultToStringConverter"