diff --git a/lib/cmdlib.py b/lib/cmdlib.py
index 173f87bb8e447cc2f969dac924db35ba5c8d2f94..96e028d432be5ce41c9989efd1b2363d9a67080d 100644
--- a/lib/cmdlib.py
+++ b/lib/cmdlib.py
@@ -2634,7 +2634,7 @@ class LUFailoverInstance(LogicalUnit):
     for dev in instance.disks:
       # for remote_raid1, these are md over drbd
       if not _CheckDiskConsistency(self.cfg, dev, target_node, False):
-        if not self.op.ignore_consistency:
+        if instance.status == "up" and not self.op.ignore_consistency:
           raise errors.OpExecError("Disk %s is degraded on target node,"
                                    " aborting failover." % dev.iv_name)