diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
index 393c314e3dd..6e484664772 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseTestingUtility.java
@@ -2491,9 +2491,6 @@ public class HBaseTestingUtility extends HBaseCommonTestingUtility {
    */
   public Connection getConnection() throws IOException {
     if (this.connection == null) {
-      if (getMiniHBaseCluster() == null) {
-        throw new IllegalStateException("You cannot have a Connection if cluster is not up");
-      }
       this.connection = ConnectionFactory.createConnection(this.conf);
     }
     return this.connection;