diff --git a/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/node/DeadNodeHandler.java b/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/node/DeadNodeHandler.java
index d694a103a69..7fda67d9af2 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/node/DeadNodeHandler.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdds/server-scm/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdds/scm/node/DeadNodeHandler.java
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ public void onMessage(DatanodeDetails datanodeDetails,
       EventPublisher publisher) {
     Set<ContainerID> containers =
         node2ContainerMap.getContainers(datanodeDetails.getUuid());
+    if (containers == null) {
+      LOG.info("There's no containers in dead datanode {}, no replica will be"
+          + " removed from the in-memory state.", datanodeDetails.getUuid());
+      return;
+    }
     LOG.info(
         "Datanode {}  is dead. Removing replications from the in-memory state.",
         datanodeDetails.getUuid());