diff --git a/xCAT-server/share/xcat/netboot/sles/genimage b/xCAT-server/share/xcat/netboot/sles/genimage
index 5e241ea7d..5f7f528a8 100755
--- a/xCAT-server/share/xcat/netboot/sles/genimage
+++ b/xCAT-server/share/xcat/netboot/sles/genimage
@@ -255,6 +255,12 @@ unless ($onlyinitrd) {
     my $non_interactive;
     if (!$prompt) { $non_interactive = "--non-interactive --no-gpg-checks --gpg-auto-import-keys"; }
 
+    my $zypper_cmd = "zypper";
+    if (! -x $zypper_cmd) {
+        print "Can not execute $zypper_cmd command. Make sure you are running on SUSE based system";
+        exit 1;
+    }
+
     if ($osver_host >= 11) {                      #zypper in SLES11 is different
 
         system("rm -rf $rootimg_dir/etc/zypp/repos.d/$osver-*.repo");