diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index eda9fd8dd0..860e8e2394 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Merged from 2.0:
  * reduce garbage on codec flag deserialization (CASSANDRA-7244) 
  * Fix duplicated error messages on directory creation error at startup (CASSANDRA-5818)
  * Proper null handle for IF with map element access (CASSANDRA-7155)
+ * Improve compaction visibility (CASSANDRA-7242)
 Merged from 1.2:
  * Add Cloudstack snitch (CASSANDRA-7147)
  * Update system.peers correctly when relocating tokens (CASSANDRA-7126)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionManager.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionManager.java
index 3c9b004a78..7fc27ae944 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionManager.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionManager.java
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import org.apache.cassandra.cache.AutoSavingCache;
 import org.apache.cassandra.concurrent.DebuggableThreadPoolExecutor;
+import org.apache.cassandra.concurrent.JMXEnabledThreadPoolExecutor;
 import org.apache.cassandra.concurrent.NamedThreadFactory;
 import org.apache.cassandra.config.CFMetaData;
 import org.apache.cassandra.config.DatabaseDescriptor;
@@ -1117,12 +1118,11 @@ public class CompactionManager implements CompactionManagerMBean
         return CompactionMetrics.getCompactions().size();
     }
 
-    private static class CompactionExecutor extends ThreadPoolExecutor
+    private static class CompactionExecutor extends JMXEnabledThreadPoolExecutor
     {
         protected CompactionExecutor(int minThreads, int maxThreads, String name, BlockingQueue<Runnable> queue)
         {
-            super(minThreads, maxThreads, 60, TimeUnit.SECONDS, queue, new NamedThreadFactory(name, Thread.MIN_PRIORITY));
-            allowCoreThreadTimeOut(true);
+            super(minThreads, maxThreads, 60, TimeUnit.SECONDS, queue, new NamedThreadFactory(name, Thread.MIN_PRIORITY), "internal");
         }
 
         private CompactionExecutor(int threadCount, String name)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/ColumnFamilyMetrics.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/ColumnFamilyMetrics.java
index efbf60e184..f080fd0d34 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/ColumnFamilyMetrics.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/ColumnFamilyMetrics.java
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ public class ColumnFamilyMetrics
     public final LatencyMetrics writeLatency;
     /** Estimated number of tasks pending for this column family */
     public final Counter pendingFlushes;
+    /** Estimate of number of pending compactios for this CF */
+    public final Gauge<Integer> pendingCompactions;
     /** Number of SSTables on disk for this CF */
     public final Gauge<Integer> liveSSTableCount;
     /** Disk space used by SSTables belonging to this CF */
@@ -232,6 +234,13 @@ public class ColumnFamilyMetrics
         readLatency = new LatencyMetrics(factory, "Read");
         writeLatency = new LatencyMetrics(factory, "Write");
         pendingFlushes = Metrics.newCounter(factory.createMetricName("PendingFlushes"));
+        pendingCompactions = Metrics.newGauge(factory.createMetricName("PendingCompactions"), new Gauge<Integer>()
+        {
+            public Integer value()
+            {
+                return cfs.getCompactionStrategy().getEstimatedRemainingTasks();
+            }
+        });
         liveSSTableCount = Metrics.newGauge(factory.createMetricName("LiveSSTableCount"), new Gauge<Integer>()
         {
             public Integer value()