diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index 60d0441aab6..3f13a45c360 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -2104,6 +2104,13 @@ public class HMaster extends HRegionServer implements MasterServices {
       warnOrThrowExceptionForFailure(logWarn, CONF_KEY, message, null);
     }
 
+    // check that we have minimum 1 region replicas
+    int regionReplicas = htd.getRegionReplication();
+    if (regionReplicas < 1) {
+      String message = "Table region replication should be at least one.";
+      warnOrThrowExceptionForFailure(logWarn, CONF_KEY, message, null);
+    }
+
     for (ColumnFamilyDescriptor hcd : htd.getColumnFamilies()) {
       if (hcd.getTimeToLive() <= 0) {
         String message = "TTL for column family " + hcd.getNameAsString() + " must be positive.";
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestFromClientSide.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestFromClientSide.java
index c4285b44687..5868869daf1 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestFromClientSide.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TestFromClientSide.java
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellScanner;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ClusterMetrics.Option;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CompareOperator;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.DoNotRetryIOException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseClassTestRule;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseTestingUtility;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor;
@@ -6707,4 +6708,30 @@ public class TestFromClientSide {
       assertNull(scanner.next());
     }
   }
+
+  @Test(expected = DoNotRetryIOException.class)
+  public void testCreateTableWithZeroRegionReplicas() throws Exception {
+    TableName tableName = TableName.valueOf(name.getMethodName());
+    TableDescriptor desc = TableDescriptorBuilder.newBuilder(tableName)
+        .setColumnFamily(ColumnFamilyDescriptorBuilder.of(Bytes.toBytes("cf")))
+        .setRegionReplication(0)
+        .build();
+
+    TEST_UTIL.getAdmin().createTable(desc);
+  }
+
+  @Test(expected = DoNotRetryIOException.class)
+  public void testModifyTableWithZeroRegionReplicas() throws Exception {
+    TableName tableName = TableName.valueOf(name.getMethodName());
+    TableDescriptor desc = TableDescriptorBuilder.newBuilder(tableName)
+        .setColumnFamily(ColumnFamilyDescriptorBuilder.of(Bytes.toBytes("cf")))
+        .build();
+
+    TEST_UTIL.getAdmin().createTable(desc);
+    TableDescriptor newDesc = TableDescriptorBuilder.newBuilder(desc)
+        .setRegionReplication(0)
+        .build();
+
+    TEST_UTIL.getAdmin().modifyTable(newDesc);
+  }
 }