diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaZooKeeper.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaZooKeeper.scala
index 1423b28503d8b2533d402a31d45ce042afab7ba5..f091f1773667bcb36d62c0a7b5079718bcf2bbd9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaZooKeeper.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaZooKeeper.scala
@@ -49,6 +49,30 @@ class KafkaZooKeeper(config: KafkaConfig,
   private val leaderChangeLock = new Object
 
   def startup() {
+    /* check that chroot exists */
+    val zkChRootPath = config.zkConnect.split("/")
+
+    if (zkChRootPath.size > 1)
+    {
+      info("checking that ZK chroot exists")
+
+      val connect = zkChRootPath(0)
+      var path = ""
+
+      zkChRootPath.zipWithIndex foreach { case(value, index) =>
+        if (index > 0)
+        {
+          path += ( "/" + value )
+        }
+      }
+
+      val client = new ZkClient(connect, config.zkSessionTimeoutMs, config.zkConnectionTimeoutMs, ZKStringSerializer)
+
+      ZkUtils.makeSurePersistentPathExists(client, path)
+
+      client.close();
+    }
+
     /* start client */
     info("connecting to ZK: " + config.zkConnect)
     zkClient = KafkaZookeeperClient.getZookeeperClient(config)