diff --git a/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/fake_pyxcli.py b/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/fake_pyxcli.py
index 18e148750c0..7f447326042 100644
--- a/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/fake_pyxcli.py
+++ b/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/fake_pyxcli.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ pyxcli_client.events = mock.Mock()
 pyxcli_client.mirroring = mock.Mock()
 pyxcli_client.transports = fake_pyxcli_exceptions
 pyxcli_client.mirroring.cg_recovery_manager = mock.Mock()
+pyxcli_client.version = '1.1.5'
 
 sys.modules['pyxcli'] = pyxcli_client
 sys.modules['pyxcli.events'] = pyxcli_client.events
diff --git a/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/test_xiv_proxy.py b/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/test_xiv_proxy.py
index b1d0375b9be..0e06edd3541 100644
--- a/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/test_xiv_proxy.py
+++ b/cinder/tests/unit/volume/drivers/ibm/test_xiv_proxy.py
@@ -150,6 +150,23 @@ class XIVProxyTest(test.TestCase):
             'san_password': REPLICA_PASSWORD,
         }
 
+    @mock.patch("cinder.volume.drivers.ibm.ibm_storage."
+                "xiv_proxy.pyxcli")
+    def test_wrong_pyxcli(self, mock_pyxcli):
+
+        driver = mock.MagicMock()
+        driver.VERSION = "VERSION"
+
+        p = self.proxy(
+            self.default_storage_info,
+            mock.MagicMock(),
+            test_mock.cinder.exception,
+            driver)
+
+        mock_pyxcli.version = '1.1.4'
+        self.assertRaises(test_mock.cinder.exception.CinderException,
+                          p.setup, {})
+
     @mock.patch("cinder.volume.drivers.ibm.ibm_storage"
                 ".xiv_proxy.socket.getfqdn", new=mock.MagicMock(
                     return_value='test_hostname'))
diff --git a/cinder/volume/drivers/ibm/ibm_storage/xiv_proxy.py b/cinder/volume/drivers/ibm/ibm_storage/xiv_proxy.py
index 2b84e311ae3..d44bc8708f0 100644
--- a/cinder/volume/drivers/ibm/ibm_storage/xiv_proxy.py
+++ b/cinder/volume/drivers/ibm/ibm_storage/xiv_proxy.py
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ SYNC = 'sync'
 ASYNC = 'async'
 SYNC_TIMEOUT = 300
 SYNCHED_STATES = ['synchronized', 'rpo ok']
+PYXCLI_VERSION = '1.1.5'
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -95,6 +96,9 @@ DELETE_VOLUME_BASE_ERROR = ("Unable to delete volume '%(volume)s': "
 MANAGE_VOLUME_BASE_ERROR = _("Unable to manage the volume '%(volume)s': "
                              "%(error)s.")
 
+INCOMPATIBLE_PYXCLI = _('Incompatible pyxcli found. Required: %(required)s '
+                        'Found: %(found)s')
+
 
 class XIVProxy(proxy.IBMStorageProxy):
     """Proxy between the Cinder Volume and Spectrum Accelerate Storage.
@@ -134,6 +138,22 @@ class XIVProxy(proxy.IBMStorageProxy):
 
     @proxy._trace_time
     def setup(self, context):
+        msg = ''
+        if pyxcli:
+            if pyxcli.version != PYXCLI_VERSION:
+                msg = (INCOMPATIBLE_PYXCLI %
+                       {'required': PYXCLI_VERSION,
+                        'found': pyxcli.version
+                        })
+        else:
+            msg = (SETUP_BASE_ERROR %
+                   {'title': strings.TITLE,
+                    'details': "IBM Python XCLI Client (pyxcli) not found"
+                    })
+        if msg != '':
+            LOG.error(msg)
+            raise self._get_exception()(msg)
+
         """Connect ssl client."""
         LOG.info("Setting up connection to %(title)s...\n"
                  "Active backend_id: '%(id)s'.",
diff --git a/driver-requirements.txt b/driver-requirements.txt
index 236cee37f26..85c13fce6cd 100644
--- a/driver-requirements.txt
+++ b/driver-requirements.txt
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ python-lefthandclient>=2.0.0 # Apache-2.0
 pywbem>=0.7.0 # LGPLv2.1+
 
 # IBM XIV
-pyxcli>=1.1.0 # Apache-2.0
+pyxcli>=1.1.5 # Apache-2.0
 
 # RBD
 rados # LGPLv2.1