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 fab5b10f54..b351c846bb 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
@@ -238,9 +238,8 @@ public class StorageContainerManager extends ServiceRuntimeInfoImpl
     initContainerReportCache(conf);
 
     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(), this);
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 078e36251c..358818715c 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;
 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;
@@ -398,6 +399,19 @@ public class TestStorageContainerManager {
     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);
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testScmInfo() throws Exception {
     OzoneConfiguration conf = new OzoneConfiguration();