diff --git a/sentry-core/sentry-core-common/src/main/java/org/apache/sentry/core/common/transport/SentryTransportPool.java b/sentry-core/sentry-core-common/src/main/java/org/apache/sentry/core/common/transport/SentryTransportPool.java
index 04a515a..80a8165 100644
--- a/sentry-core/sentry-core-common/src/main/java/org/apache/sentry/core/common/transport/SentryTransportPool.java
+++ b/sentry-core/sentry-core-common/src/main/java/org/apache/sentry/core/common/transport/SentryTransportPool.java
@@ -145,6 +145,15 @@
             poolConfig);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Get an open transport instance.
+   * The instance can be connected to any of the available servers.
+   * We are trying to randomly load-balance between servers (unless it is
+   * disabled in configuration).
+   *
+   * @return connected transport
+   * @throws Exception if connection tto both servers fails
+   */
   public TTransportWrapper getTransport() throws Exception {
     List<HostAndPort> servers;
     // If we are doing load balancing and there is more then one server,
@@ -156,29 +165,40 @@
       servers = endpoints;
     }
 
-    // Try to get a connection from one of the pools
+    // Try to get a connection from one of the pools.
     Exception failure = null;
-    for(HostAndPort addr: servers) {
-      try {
-        TTransportWrapper transport =
-          isPoolEnabled ?
-                pool.borrowObject(addr) :
-                transportFactory.getTransport(addr);
-        LOGGER.debug("[{}] obtained transport {}", id, transport);
-        if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled() && isPoolEnabled) {
-          LOGGER.debug("Currently {} active connections, {} idle connections",
-                  pool.getNumActive(), pool.getNumIdle());
+    boolean ignoreEmptyPool = true;
+    for (int attempt = 0; attempt < 2; attempt++) {
+      // First only attempt to borrow from pools which have some idle connections
+      // If this fails, try with all pools
+      for (HostAndPort addr : servers) {
+        if (isPoolEnabled && ignoreEmptyPool && (pool.getNumIdle(addr) == 0)) {
+          LOGGER.debug("Ignoring empty pool {}", addr);
+          ignoreEmptyPool = false;
+          continue;
         }
-        return transport;
-      } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
-        // Should not happen
-        LOGGER.error("Unexpected error from pool {}", id,  e);
-        failure = e;
-      } catch (Exception e) {
-        LOGGER.error("Failed to obtain transport for {}: {}",
-                addr, e.getMessage());
-        failure = e;
+        try {
+          TTransportWrapper transport =
+              isPoolEnabled ?
+                  pool.borrowObject(addr) :
+                  transportFactory.getTransport(addr);
+          LOGGER.debug("[{}] obtained transport {}", id, transport);
+          if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled() && isPoolEnabled) {
+            LOGGER.debug("Currently {} active connections, {} idle connections",
+                pool.getNumActive(), pool.getNumIdle());
+          }
+          return transport;
+        } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
+          // Should not happen
+          LOGGER.error("Unexpected error from pool {}", id, e);
+          failure = e;
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+          LOGGER.error("Failed to obtain transport for {}: {}",
+              addr, e.getMessage());
+          failure = e;
+        }
       }
+      ignoreEmptyPool = false;
     }
     // Failed to borrow connect to any endpoint
     assert failure != null;