diff --git a/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/container/replication/ReplicationManager.java b/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/container/replication/ReplicationManager.java
index 14a325b844ce..72f5b9eb47ce 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/container/replication/ReplicationManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/container/replication/ReplicationManager.java
@@ -1333,8 +1333,14 @@ public void validate() {
             + " event.timeout, which is set to " + eventTimeout);
       }
       if (reconstructionCommandWeight <= 0) {
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException("reconstructionCommandWeight is"
-            + " set to " + reconstructionCommandWeight + " and must be > 0");
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException("datanode.reconstruction.weight: "
+            + reconstructionCommandWeight + " must be > 0");
+      }
+      if (datanodeReplicationLimit < reconstructionCommandWeight) {
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException("datanode.replication.limit: "
+            + datanodeReplicationLimit
+            + " must be >= datanode.reconstruction.weight: "
+            + reconstructionCommandWeight);
       }
       if (inflightReplicationLimitFactor < 0) {
         throw new IllegalArgumentException(