diff --git a/SAS/ResourceAssignment/ResourceAssigner/test/t_resourceassigner.py b/SAS/ResourceAssignment/ResourceAssigner/test/t_resourceassigner.py
index eec15481b8c5f7317d17e6fc25ef717c79ea7c3e..5c8c6209c4f9dab8d4b06e9ab2c05d16ee9c5e4d 100755
--- a/SAS/ResourceAssignment/ResourceAssigner/test/t_resourceassigner.py
+++ b/SAS/ResourceAssignment/ResourceAssigner/test/t_resourceassigner.py
@@ -55,6 +55,15 @@ with patch('lofar.sas.resourceassignment.resourceassignmentservice.rpc.RARPC', a
     # import ResourceAssigner now, so it will use the mocked classes and methods
     from lofar.sas.resourceassignment.resourceassigner.assignment import ResourceAssigner
 
+    try:
+        with ResourceAssigner() as assigner:
+            pass
+    except Exception as e:
+        if 'NotFound: no such queue' in e.message:
+            print e.message
+            print 'qpid environment not set up correctly for this test'
+            exit(3)
+
     #define the test class
     class ResourceAssignerTest(unittest.TestCase):
         '''Test the logic in the ResourceAssigner'''