diff --git a/ipa-server/ipa-ldap-updater b/ipa-server/ipa-ldap-updater
index 90119950e..f85148e35 100755
--- a/ipa-server/ipa-ldap-updater
+++ b/ipa-server/ipa-ldap-updater
@@ -120,3 +120,7 @@ except SystemExit, e:
     sys.exit(e)
 except KeyboardInterrupt, e:
     sys.exit(1)
+except config.IPAConfigError, e:
+    print "An IPA server to update cannot be found. Has one been configured yet?"
+    print "The error was: %s" % e
+    sys.exit(1)