diff --git a/ipatests/test_ipaserver/test_version_comparison.py b/ipatests/test_ipaserver/test_version_comparison.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..79b1d5ce7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ipatests/test_ipaserver/test_version_comparison.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2015  FreeIPA Contributors see COPYING for license
+#
+
+"""
+tests for correct RPM version comparison
+"""
+
+from ipaplatform.tasks import tasks
+import pytest
+
+version_strings = [
+    ("3.0.0-1.el6", "3.0.0-2.el6", "older"),
+    ("3.0.0-1.el6_8", "3.0.0-1.el6_8.1", "older"),
+    ("3.0.0-42.el6", "3.0.0-1.el6", "newer"),
+    ("3.0.0-1.el6", "3.0.0-42.el6", "older"),
+    ("3.0.0-42.el6", "3.3.3-1.fc20", "older"),
+    ("4.2.0-15.el7", "4.2.0-15.el7_2.3", "older"),
+    ("4.2.0-15.el7_2", "4.2.0-15.el7_2.3", "older"),
+    ("4.2.0-15.el7_2.3", "4.2.0-15.el7_2.3", "equal"),
+    ("4.2.0-15.el7_2.3", "4.2.0-15.el7_2.2", "newer"),
+    ("4.2.0-1.fc23", "4.2.1-1.fc23", "older"),
+    ("4.2.3-alpha1.fc23", "4.2.3-2.fc23", "older"),  # numeric version elements
+                                                     # have precedence over
+                                                     # non-numeric ones
+    ("4.3.90.201601080923GIT55aeea7-0.fc23", "4.3.0-1.fc23", "newer")
+]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(params=version_strings)
+def versions(request):
+    return request.param
+
+class TestVersionComparsion(object):
+
+    def test_versions(self, versions):
+        version_string1, version_string2, expected_comparison = versions
+
+        ver1 = tasks.parse_ipa_version(version_string1)
+        ver2 = tasks.parse_ipa_version(version_string2)
+
+        if expected_comparison == "newer":
+            assert ver1 > ver2
+        elif expected_comparison == "older":
+            assert ver1 < ver2
+        elif expected_comparison == "equal":
+            assert ver1 == ver2
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                "Unexpected comparison string: {}".format(expected_comparison)
+            )