diff --git a/federation/cluster/federation-down.sh b/federation/cluster/federation-down.sh
index 4787d778662..f3f71b2ae26 100755
--- a/federation/cluster/federation-down.sh
+++ b/federation/cluster/federation-down.sh
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@ set -o pipefail
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(readlink -m $(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/../../)
 
-# For $FEDERATION_NAME, $FEDERATION_KUBE_CONTEXT, $HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT,
-# $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAME and $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE.
+# For $FEDERATION_NAME, $FEDERATION_NAMESPACE, $FEDERATION_KUBE_CONTEXT,
+# $HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT, $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAME and
+# $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE.
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/federation/cluster/common.sh"
 
 # federation_clusters returns a list of all the clusters in
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ function unjoin_clusters() {
 
     "${KUBE_ROOT}/federation/develop/kubefed.sh" unjoin \
         "${context}" \
+        --federation-system-namespace=${FEDERATION_NAMESPACE} \
         --context="${FEDERATION_KUBE_CONTEXT}" \
         --host-cluster-context="${HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT}"
   done
diff --git a/federation/cluster/federation-up.sh b/federation/cluster/federation-up.sh
index 52783f20123..56158aacd9e 100755
--- a/federation/cluster/federation-up.sh
+++ b/federation/cluster/federation-up.sh
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/../..
 # For `kube::log::status` function since it already sources
 # "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/lib/logging.sh" and DEFAULT_KUBECONFIG
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/common.sh"
-# For $FEDERATION_NAME, $FEDERATION_KUBE_CONTEXT, $HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT,
-# $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAME, $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE and
-# $KUBEDNS_FEDERATION_FLAG.
+# For $FEDERATION_NAME, $FEDERATION_NAMESPACE, $FEDERATION_KUBE_CONTEXT,
+# $HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT, $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAME,
+# $KUBEDNS_CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE and $KUBEDNS_FEDERATION_FLAG.
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/federation/cluster/common.sh"
 
 DNS_ZONE_NAME="${FEDERATION_DNS_ZONE_NAME:-}"
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ function init() {
   timeout --signal=INT --kill-after=1m 20m \
       "${KUBE_ROOT}/federation/develop/kubefed.sh" init \
       "${FEDERATION_NAME}" \
+      --federation-system-namespace=${FEDERATION_NAMESPACE} \
       --host-cluster-context="${HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT}" \
       --dns-zone-name="${DNS_ZONE_NAME}" \
       --dns-provider="${DNS_PROVIDER}" \
@@ -105,6 +106,7 @@ function join_clusters() {
 
     "${KUBE_ROOT}/federation/develop/kubefed.sh" join \
         "${context}" \
+        --federation-system-namespace=${FEDERATION_NAMESPACE} \
         --host-cluster-context="${HOST_CLUSTER_CONTEXT}" \
         --context="${FEDERATION_NAME}" \
         --secret-name="${context//_/-}"    # Replace "_" by "-"
diff --git a/test/e2e/BUILD b/test/e2e/BUILD
index aefd34797a3..ea9c8a71de8 100644
--- a/test/e2e/BUILD
+++ b/test/e2e/BUILD
@@ -102,7 +102,6 @@ go_library(
     ],
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     deps = [
-        "//federation/apis/federation/v1beta1:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api/annotations:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api/v1:go_default_library",
diff --git a/test/e2e/e2e.go b/test/e2e/e2e.go
index cc8dfbaf6d1..7a833a33f9b 100644
--- a/test/e2e/e2e.go
+++ b/test/e2e/e2e.go
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
 	runtimeutils "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime"
 	utilyaml "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/yaml"
-	federationapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/federation/apis/federation/v1beta1"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/client/clientset_generated/clientset"
@@ -116,7 +115,7 @@ var _ = ginkgo.SynchronizedBeforeSuite(func() []byte {
 				metav1.NamespaceSystem,
 				metav1.NamespaceDefault,
 				metav1.NamespacePublic,
-				federationapi.FederationNamespaceSystem,
+				framework.FederationSystemNamespace(),
 			})
 		if err != nil {
 			framework.Failf("Error deleting orphaned namespaces: %v", err)
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/BUILD b/test/e2e/framework/BUILD
index 4b8c83a1d80..831dff0ac2f 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/BUILD
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/BUILD
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ go_library(
         "authorizer_util.go",
         "cleanup.go",
         "exec_util.go",
+        "federation_util.go",
         "firewall_util.go",
         "framework.go",
         "get-kubemark-resource-usage.go",
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ go_library(
     ],
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     deps = [
+        "//federation/apis/federation/v1beta1:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api/v1:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/api/v1/service:go_default_library",
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/federation_util.go b/test/e2e/framework/federation_util.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..552473fab8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/federation_util.go
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package framework
+
+import (
+	"os"
+
+	federationapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/federation/apis/federation/v1beta1"
+)
+
+// FederationSystemNamespace returns the namespace in which
+// the federation system components are hosted.
+func FederationSystemNamespace() string {
+	federationNS := os.Getenv("FEDERATION_NAMESPACE")
+	if federationNS != "" {
+		return federationNS
+	}
+	return federationapi.FederationNamespaceSystem
+}
diff --git a/test/e2e_federation/framework/util.go b/test/e2e_federation/framework/util.go
index 7cc79aea451..2daea426499 100644
--- a/test/e2e_federation/framework/util.go
+++ b/test/e2e_federation/framework/util.go
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
 	restclient "k8s.io/client-go/rest"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/tools/clientcmd"
-	federationapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/federation/apis/federation/v1beta1"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/federation/client/clientset_generated/federation_clientset"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/validation"
@@ -40,10 +39,7 @@ import (
 
 // Detects whether the federation namespace exists in the underlying cluster
 func SkipUnlessFederated(c clientset.Interface) {
-	federationNS := os.Getenv("FEDERATION_NAMESPACE")
-	if federationNS == "" {
-		federationNS = federationapi.FederationNamespaceSystem
-	}
+	federationNS := framework.FederationSystemNamespace()
 
 	_, err := c.Core().Namespaces().Get(federationNS, metav1.GetOptions{})
 	if err != nil {