diff --git a/test/runtest.py b/test/runtest.py
index f58ffb3c7..801e33746 100644
--- a/test/runtest.py
+++ b/test/runtest.py
@@ -102,6 +102,14 @@ DICT_OBJECTS = ([{obj: obj} for obj in PRIMITIVE_OBJECTS if obj.__hash__ is not
 
 RAY_TEST_OBJECTS = BASE_OBJECTS + LIST_OBJECTS + TUPLE_OBJECTS + DICT_OBJECTS
 
+# Check that the correct version of cloudpickle is installed.
+try:
+  import cloudpickle
+  cloudpickle.dumps(Point)
+except AttributeError:
+  cloudpickle_command = "sudo pip install --upgrade git+git://github.com/cloudpipe/cloudpickle.git@0d225a4695f1f65ae1cbb2e0bbc145e10167cce4"
+  raise Exception("You have an older version of cloudpickle that is not able to serialize namedtuples. Try running \n\n{}\n\n".format(cloudpickle_command))
+
 class ObjStoreTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
   # Test setting up object stores, transfering data between them and retrieving data to a client