diff --git a/conf/log4j2.xml b/conf/log4j2.xml
index d203a24d97..64675b505b 100644
--- a/conf/log4j2.xml
+++ b/conf/log4j2.xml
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@
 -->
 <Configuration status="ERROR">
   <Properties>
-    <Property name="LOG_DIR">./logs</Property>
+    <Property name="LOG_DIR">${sys:flume.log.dir:-./logs}</Property>
+    <Property name="LOG_FILE">${sys:flume.log.file:-flume.log}</Property>
   </Properties>
   <Appenders>
     <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
       <PatternLayout pattern="%d (%t) [%p - %l] %m%n" />
     </Console>
-    <RollingFile name="LogFile" fileName="${LOG_DIR}/flume.log" filePattern="${LOG_DIR}/archive/flume.log.%d{yyyyMMdd}-%i">
+    <RollingFile name="LogFile" fileName="${LOG_DIR}/${LOG_FILE}" filePattern="${LOG_DIR}/archive/${LOG_FILE}.%d{yyyyMMdd}-%i">
       <PatternLayout pattern="%d{dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss,SSS} %-5p [%t] (%C.%M:%L) %equals{%x}{[]}{} - %m%n" />
       <Policies>
         <!-- Roll every night at midnight or when the file reaches 100MB -->
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@
       <DefaultRolloverStrategy min="1" max="20">
         <Delete basePath="${LOG_DIR}/archive">
           <!-- Nested conditions: the inner condition is only evaluated on files for which the outer conditions are true. -->
-          <IfFileName glob="flume.log.*">
+          <IfFileName glob="${LOG_FILE}.*">
             <!-- Only allow 1 GB of files to accumulate -->
             <IfAccumulatedFileSize exceeds="1 GB"/>
           </IfFileName>
@@ -44,13 +45,13 @@
   </Appenders>
 
   <Loggers>
-    <Logger name="org.apache.flume.lifecycle" level="info"/>
+    <Logger name="org.apache.flume.lifecycle" level="INFO"/>
     <Logger name="org.jboss" level="WARN"/>
     <Logger name="org.apache.avro.ipc.NettyTransceiver" level="WARN"/>
     <Logger name="org.apache.hadoop" level="INFO"/>
     <Logger name="org.apache.hadoop.hive" level="ERROR"/>
-    <Root level="INFO">
-      <AppenderRef ref="LogFile" />
+    <Root level="${sys:flume.root.logger.level:-INFO">
+      <AppenderRef ref="${sys:flume.root.logger.appender:-LogFile}" />
     </Root>
   </Loggers>
 </Configuration>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/flume-ng-doc/sphinx/FlumeUserGuide.rst b/flume-ng-doc/sphinx/FlumeUserGuide.rst
index 163ec49256..b7812a6758 100644
--- a/flume-ng-doc/sphinx/FlumeUserGuide.rst
+++ b/flume-ng-doc/sphinx/FlumeUserGuide.rst
@@ -195,11 +195,11 @@ several named agents; when a given Flume process is launched a flag is passed te
 
 Given this configuration file, we can start Flume as follows::
 
-  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger=INFO,console
+  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger.level=INFO -Dflume.root.logger.appender=Console
 
-Note that in a full deployment we would typically include one more option: ``--conf=<conf-dir>``.
-The ``<conf-dir>`` directory would include a shell script *flume-env.sh* and potentially a log4j properties file.
-In this example, we pass a Java option to force Flume to log to the console and we go without a custom environment script.
+Note that in a full deployment we typically include the option: ``--conf=<conf-dir>``.
+The ``<conf-dir>`` directory would include a shell script *flume-env.sh* and a *log4j2.xml* file.
+In this example, we pass a Java option to force Flume to log to the console.
 
 From a separate terminal, we can then telnet port 44444 and send Flume an event:
 
@@ -237,7 +237,8 @@ NB: it currently works for values only, not for keys. (Ie. only on the "right si
 This can be enabled via Java system properties on agent invocation by setting `propertiesImplementation = org.apache.flume.node.EnvVarResolverProperties`.
 
 For example::
-  $ NC_PORT=44444 bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger=INFO,console -DpropertiesImplementation=org.apache.flume.node.EnvVarResolverProperties
+
+  $ NC_PORT=44444 bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger.level=INFO -Dflume.root.logger.appender=Console -DpropertiesImplementation=org.apache.flume.node.EnvVarResolverProperties
 
 Note the above is just an example, environment variables can be configured in other ways, including being set in `conf/flume-env.sh`.
 
@@ -256,20 +257,20 @@ connected to a `Logger Sink`_, which will output all event data to the Flume log
 In some situations, however, this approach is insufficient.
 
 In order to enable logging of event- and configuration-related data, some Java system properties
-must be set in addition to log4j properties.
+must be set in addition to log4j2 configuration.
 
 To enable configuration-related logging, set the Java system property
 ``-Dorg.apache.flume.log.printconfig=true``. This can either be passed on the command line or by
 setting this in the ``JAVA_OPTS`` variable in *flume-env.sh*.
 
 To enable data logging, set the Java system property ``-Dorg.apache.flume.log.rawdata=true``
-in the same way described above. For most components, the log4j logging level must also be set to
+in the same way described above. For most components, the log4j2 logging level must also be set to
 DEBUG or TRACE to make event-specific logging appear in the Flume logs.
 
 Here is an example of enabling both configuration logging and raw data logging while also
-setting the Log4j loglevel to DEBUG for console output::
+setting the log4j2 logging level to DEBUG for console output::
 
-  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger=DEBUG,console -Dorg.apache.flume.log.printconfig=true -Dorg.apache.flume.log.rawdata=true
+  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf --conf-file example.conf --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger.level=DEBUG -Dflume.root.logger.appender=Console -Dorg.apache.flume.log.printconfig=true -Dorg.apache.flume.log.rawdata=true
 
 
 Zookeeper based Configuration
@@ -287,7 +288,7 @@ Following is how the Zookeeper Node tree would look like for agents a1 and a2
 
 Once the configuration file is uploaded, start the agent with following options
 
-  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf -z zkhost:2181,zkhost1:2181 -p /flume --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger=INFO,console
+  $ bin/flume-ng agent --conf conf -z zkhost:2181,zkhost1:2181 -p /flume --name a1 -Dflume.root.logger.level=INFO -Dflume.root.logger.appender=Console
 
 ==================   ================  =========================================================================
 Argument Name        Default           Description
diff --git a/flume-ng-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/test/util/StagedInstall.java b/flume-ng-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/test/util/StagedInstall.java
index e5aa0cb203..44c0a9cd9f 100644
--- a/flume-ng-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/test/util/StagedInstall.java
+++ b/flume-ng-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/test/util/StagedInstall.java
@@ -55,9 +55,11 @@ public class StagedInstall {
       "flume.dist.tarball";
 
   public static final String ENV_FLUME_LOG_DIR = "flume.log.dir";
-  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER = "flume.root.logger";
-  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_VALUE = "DEBUG,LOGFILE";
   public static final String ENV_FLUME_LOG_FILE = "flume.log.file";
+  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_LEVEL = "flume.root.logger.level";
+  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_LEVEL_VALUE = "DEBUG";
+  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_APPENDER = "flume.root.logger.appender";
+  public static final String ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_APPENDER_VALUE = "LogFile";
 
   private final File stageDir;
   private final File baseDir;
@@ -156,9 +158,11 @@ public synchronized void startAgent(
     builder.add("--conf-file", configFilePath);
     builder.add("--name", agentName);
     builder.add("-D" + ENV_FLUME_LOG_DIR + "=" + logDirPath);
-    builder.add("-D" + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER + "="
-            + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_VALUE);
     builder.add("-D" + ENV_FLUME_LOG_FILE + "=" + logFileName);
+    builder.add("-D" + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_LEVEL + "="
+        + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_LEVEL_VALUE);
+    builder.add("-D" + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_APPENDER + "="
+        + ENV_FLUME_ROOT_LOGGER_APPENDER_VALUE);
 
     commandOptions.forEach((key, value) -> builder.add(key, value));