diff --git a/streaming/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/receiver/ReceivedBlockHandler.scala b/streaming/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/receiver/ReceivedBlockHandler.scala
index aa6b6ca1448e4..4941477bd09b6 100644
--- a/streaming/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/receiver/ReceivedBlockHandler.scala
+++ b/streaming/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/receiver/ReceivedBlockHandler.scala
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
 import org.apache.spark.storage._
 import org.apache.spark.streaming.receiver.WriteAheadLogBasedBlockHandler._
 import org.apache.spark.streaming.util.{WriteAheadLogSegment, WriteAheadLogUtils}
-import org.apache.spark.util.{Clock, SystemClock}
+import org.apache.spark.util.{Clock, SystemClock, ThreadUtils}
 import org.apache.spark.{Logging, SparkConf, SparkException}
 
 /** Trait that represents the metadata related to storage of blocks */
diff --git a/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/util/WriteAheadLogSuite.scala b/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/util/WriteAheadLogSuite.scala
index 4affdb5c1aff9..113e970ed4961 100644
--- a/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/util/WriteAheadLogSuite.scala
+++ b/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/util/WriteAheadLogSuite.scala
@@ -18,10 +18,12 @@ package org.apache.spark.streaming.util
 
 import java.io._
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer
+import java.util
 
 import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
 import scala.concurrent.duration._
 import scala.language.{implicitConversions, postfixOps}
+import scala.reflect.ClassTag
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
@@ -146,7 +148,7 @@ class WriteAheadLogSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
   }
 
   test("FileBasedWriteAheadLog - write rotating logs") {
-    // Write data using manager
+    // Write data with rotation using WriteAheadLog class
     val dataToWrite = generateRandomData()
     writeDataUsingWriteAheadLog(testDir, dataToWrite)
 
@@ -158,7 +160,7 @@ class WriteAheadLogSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
   }
 
   test("FileBasedWriteAheadLog - read rotating logs") {
-    // Write data manually for testing reading through manager
+    // Write data manually for testing reading through WriteAheadLog
     val writtenData = (1 to 10).map { i =>
       val data = generateRandomData()
       val file = testDir + s"/log-$i-$i"
@@ -243,10 +245,58 @@ class WriteAheadLogSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
     val readData = readDataUsingWriteAheadLog(testDir)
     assert(readData === dataToWrite2)
   }
+
+  test("WriteAheadLogUtils - log creation") {
+    val logDir = Utils.createTempDir().getAbsolutePath
+
+    def assertLogClass[T: ClassTag](conf: SparkConf, forDriver: Boolean): Unit = {
+      val log = if (forDriver) {
+        WriteAheadLogUtils.createLogForDriver(conf, logDir, hadoopConf, 1, 1)
+      } else {
+        WriteAheadLogUtils.createLogForReceiver(conf, logDir, hadoopConf, 1, 1)
+      }
+      assert(log.isInstanceOf[T])
+    }
+
+    val emptyConf = new SparkConf()  // no log configuration
+    assertLogClass[FileBasedWriteAheadLog](emptyConf, forDriver = true)
+    assertLogClass[FileBasedWriteAheadLog](emptyConf, forDriver = false)
+
+    val driverWALConf = new SparkConf().set("spark.streaming.driver.writeAheadLog.class",
+      classOf[MockWriteAheadLog1].getCanonicalName)
+    assertLogClass[MockWriteAheadLog1](emptyConf, forDriver = true)
+    assertLogClass[FileBasedWriteAheadLog](emptyConf, forDriver = false)
+
+    val receiverWALConf = new SparkConf().set("spark.streaming.receiver.writeAheadLog.class",
+      classOf[MockWriteAheadLog1].getCanonicalName)
+    assertLogClass[FileBasedWriteAheadLog](emptyConf, forDriver = true)
+    assertLogClass[MockWriteAheadLog1](emptyConf, forDriver = false)
+
+    val receiverWALConf2 = new SparkConf().set("spark.streaming.receiver.writeAheadLog.class",
+      classOf[MockWriteAheadLog2].getCanonicalName)
+    assertLogClass[FileBasedWriteAheadLog](emptyConf, forDriver = true)
+    assertLogClass[MockWriteAheadLog2](emptyConf, forDriver = false)
+  }
 }
 
 object WriteAheadLogSuite {
 
+  class MockWriteAheadLog1(val conf: SparkConf, val checkpointDir: String) extends WriteAheadLog {
+    override def write(record: ByteBuffer, time: Long): WriteAheadLogSegment = { null }
+    override def read(segment: WriteAheadLogSegment): ByteBuffer = { null }
+    override def readAll(): util.Iterator[ByteBuffer] = { null }
+    override def cleanup(threshTime: Long, waitForCompletion: Boolean): Unit = { }
+    override def close(): Unit = { }
+  }
+
+  class MockWriteAheadLog2(val conf: SparkConf) extends WriteAheadLog {
+    override def write(record: ByteBuffer, time: Long): WriteAheadLogSegment = { null }
+    override def read(segment: WriteAheadLogSegment): ByteBuffer = { null }
+    override def readAll(): util.Iterator[ByteBuffer] = { null }
+    override def cleanup(threshTime: Long, waitForCompletion: Boolean): Unit = { }
+    override def close(): Unit = { }
+  }
+
   private val hadoopConf = new Configuration()
 
   /** Write data to a file directly and return an array of the file segments written. */
@@ -279,7 +329,7 @@ object WriteAheadLogSuite {
     segments
   }
 
-  /** Write data to rotating files in log directory using the manager class. */
+  /** Write data to rotating files in log directory using the WriteAheadLog class. */
   def writeDataUsingWriteAheadLog(
       logDirectory: String,
       data: Seq[String],
@@ -347,7 +397,7 @@ object WriteAheadLogSuite {
     readData
   }
 
-  /** Read all the data in the log file in a directory using the manager class. */
+  /** Read all the data in the log file in a directory using the WriteAheadLog class. */
   def readDataUsingWriteAheadLog(logDirectory: String): Seq[String] = {
     import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
     val wal = new FileBasedWriteAheadLog(new SparkConf(), logDirectory, hadoopConf)