diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/scm/StorageContainerManager.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/scm/StorageContainerManager.java
index a4f4503070..1f86bd0143 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/scm/StorageContainerManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/scm/StorageContainerManager.java
@@ -226,9 +226,8 @@ private StorageContainerManager(OzoneConfiguration conf)
 
     StorageContainerManager.initMetrics();
     scmStorage = new SCMStorage(conf);
-    String clusterId = scmStorage.getClusterID();
-    if (clusterId == null) {
-      throw new SCMException("clusterId not found",
+    if (scmStorage.getState() != StorageState.INITIALIZED) {
+      throw new SCMException("SCM not initialized.",
           ResultCodes.SCM_NOT_INITIALIZED);
     }
     scmNodeManager = new SCMNodeManager(conf, scmStorage.getClusterID());
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/TestStorageContainerManager.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/TestStorageContainerManager.java
index 305eb2996e..e42065d772 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/TestStorageContainerManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/TestStorageContainerManager.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.scm.StorageContainerManager.StartupOption;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.scm.block.DeletedBlockLog;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.scm.block.SCMBlockDeletingService;
+import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.scm.exceptions.SCMException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.scm.node.NodeManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.scm.XceiverClientManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.scm.container.common.helpers.Pipeline;
@@ -396,4 +397,17 @@ public void testSCMReinitialization() throws Exception {
     Assert.assertEquals(OzoneConsts.NodeType.SCM, scmStore.getNodeType());
     Assert.assertNotEquals("testClusterId", scmStore.getClusterID());
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testSCMInitializationFailure() throws IOException {
+    OzoneConfiguration conf = new OzoneConfiguration();
+    final String path =
+        GenericTestUtils.getTempPath(UUID.randomUUID().toString());
+    Path scmPath = Paths.get(path, "scm-meta");
+    conf.set(OzoneConfigKeys.OZONE_METADATA_DIRS, scmPath.toString());
+    conf.setBoolean(OzoneConfigKeys.OZONE_ENABLED, true);
+    exception.expect(SCMException.class);
+    exception.expectMessage("SCM not initialized.");
+    StorageContainerManager.createSCM(null, conf);
+  }
 }