diff --git a/fe/src/main/java/org/apache/impala/catalog/ImpaladCatalog.java b/fe/src/main/java/org/apache/impala/catalog/ImpaladCatalog.java
index af834430c..d5f8cd34b 100644
--- a/fe/src/main/java/org/apache/impala/catalog/ImpaladCatalog.java
+++ b/fe/src/main/java/org/apache/impala/catalog/ImpaladCatalog.java
@@ -473,10 +473,8 @@ public class ImpaladCatalog extends Catalog implements FeCatalog {
       long catalogVersion, long lastLoadedTime) throws TableLoadingException {
     Db db = getDb(thriftTable.db_name);
     if (db == null) {
-      if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
-        LOG.trace("Parent database of table does not exist: " +
-            thriftTable.db_name + "." + thriftTable.tbl_name);
-      }
+      LOG.warn("Not adding table since the database does not exist: " +
+          thriftTable.db_name + "." + thriftTable.tbl_name);
       return;
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/custom_cluster/test_metadata_replicas.py b/tests/custom_cluster/test_metadata_replicas.py
index 2a1dd3dfb..2480a6a44 100644
--- a/tests/custom_cluster/test_metadata_replicas.py
+++ b/tests/custom_cluster/test_metadata_replicas.py
@@ -26,11 +26,14 @@ from tests.util.hive_utils import HiveDbWrapper
 @SkipIfFS.hive
 @CustomClusterTestSuite.with_args(
     impalad_args="--use_local_catalog=false",
-    catalogd_args="--catalog_topic_mode=full",
+    catalogd_args="--catalog_topic_mode=full --hms_event_polling_interval_s=0",
     statestored_args="--statestore_update_frequency_ms=1000")
 class TestMetadataReplicas(CustomClusterTestSuite):
   """ Validates metadata content across catalogd and impalad coordinators.
-  This test is only valid in legacy catalog mode. """
+  This test is only valid in legacy catalog mode. Disables HMS event processing to avoid
+  catalogd cache being modified unintentionally by HMS events. The test expects the
+  INVALIDATE command to bring up the latest metadata from HMS. This avoids hitting the bug
+  of IMPALA-12103. """
 
   @classmethod
   def setup_class(cls):