Index: system_test/replication_testsuite/replica_basic_test.py
===================================================================
--- system_test/replication_testsuite/replica_basic_test.py	(revision 1410422)
+++ system_test/replication_testsuite/replica_basic_test.py	(working copy)
@@ -363,8 +363,8 @@
                 # =============================================
                 minStartingOffsetDict = None
                 if logRetentionTest.lower() == "true":
-                    self.anonLogger.info("sleeping for 10s before collecting logs")
-                    time.sleep(10)
+                    self.anonLogger.info("sleeping for 60s to make sure log truncation is completed")
+                    time.sleep(60)
                     kafka_system_test_utils.collect_logs_from_remote_hosts(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
 
                     minStartingOffsetDict = kafka_system_test_utils.getMinCommonStartingOffset(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
@@ -378,6 +378,14 @@
                 kafka_system_test_utils.start_simple_consumer(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv, minStartingOffsetDict)
                 self.anonLogger.info("sleeping for 10s")
                 time.sleep(10)
+
+                # =============================================
+                # starting console consumer
+                # =============================================
+                if logRetentionTest.lower() == "false":
+                    self.log_message("starting consumer in the background")
+                    kafka_system_test_utils.start_console_consumer(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
+                    time.sleep(1)
                     
                 # =============================================
                 # this testcase is completed - stop all entities
@@ -409,6 +417,7 @@
                     #kafka_system_test_utils.validate_simple_consumer_data_matched(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
                     kafka_system_test_utils.validate_simple_consumer_data_matched_across_replicas(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
                     kafka_system_test_utils.validate_broker_log_segment_checksum(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
+                    kafka_system_test_utils.validate_data_matched(self.systemTestEnv, self.testcaseEnv)
 
                 # =============================================
                 # draw graphs
Index: system_test/utils/kafka_system_test_utils.py
===================================================================
--- system_test/utils/kafka_system_test_utils.py	(revision 1410422)
+++ system_test/utils/kafka_system_test_utils.py	(working copy)
@@ -1949,7 +1949,7 @@
             logger.info("topic " + topic + " : no. of brokers with non-zero msg count : " + str(nonZeroMsgCounter), extra=d)
             logger.info("topic " + topic + " : non-zero brokers msg count             : " + str(nonZeroMsgValue), extra=d)
 
-        if mismatchCounter == 0:
+        if mismatchCounter == 0 and nonZeroMsgCounter > 0:
             validationStatusDict["Validate for data matched on topic [" + topic + "] across replicas"] = "PASSED"
         else:
             validationStatusDict["Validate for data matched on topic [" + topic + "] across replicas"] = "FAILED"