diff --git a/tools/kolla-ansible b/tools/kolla-ansible
index a60338c795..640a18ce20 100755
--- a/tools/kolla-ansible
+++ b/tools/kolla-ansible
@@ -120,6 +120,11 @@ LONG_OPTS="help,inventory:,playbook:,skip-tags:,tags:,key:,extra:,verbose,config
 RAW_ARGS="$*"
 ARGS=$(getopt -o "${SHORT_OPTS}" -l "${LONG_OPTS}" --name "$0" -- "$@") || { usage >&2; exit 2; }
 
+python -c 'import kolla_ansible' &>/dev/null || (
+    echo "ERROR: kolla_ansible has to be available in the PYTHONPATH (e.g. installed)" >&2
+    exit 1
+)
+
 eval set -- "$ARGS"
 
 find_base_dir