diff --git bin/kafka-run-class.sh bin/kafka-run-class.sh
index e93f670..086b070 100755
--- bin/kafka-run-class.sh
+++ bin/kafka-run-class.sh
@@ -52,7 +52,10 @@ if [ -z "$KAFKA_JMX_OPTS" ]; then
   KAFKA_JMX_OPTS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false  -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false "
 fi
 if [ -z "$KAFKA_OPTS" ]; then
-  KAFKA_OPTS="-Xmx512M -server  -Dlog4j.configuration=file:$base_dir/config/log4j.properties"
+  KAFKA_OPTS="-Xmx512M -server"
+fi
+if [ -z "$LOG4J_OPTS" ]; then
+  LOG4J_OPTS="-Dlog4j.configuration=file:$base_dir/config/log4j.properties"
 fi
 if [  $JMX_PORT ]; then
   KAFKA_JMX_OPTS="$KAFKA_JMX_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=$JMX_PORT "
@@ -63,4 +66,4 @@ else
   JAVA="$JAVA_HOME/bin/java"
 fi
 
-$JAVA $KAFKA_OPTS $KAFKA_JMX_OPTS -cp $CLASSPATH $@
+$JAVA $KAFKA_OPTS $KAFKA_JMX_OPTS $LOG4J_OPTS -cp $CLASSPATH $@