diff --git a/server/src/com/cloud/storage/allocator/AbstractStoragePoolAllocator.java b/server/src/com/cloud/storage/allocator/AbstractStoragePoolAllocator.java
index eefb6fa65ef..cf6471018cf 100644
--- a/server/src/com/cloud/storage/allocator/AbstractStoragePoolAllocator.java
+++ b/server/src/com/cloud/storage/allocator/AbstractStoragePoolAllocator.java
@@ -146,9 +146,11 @@ public abstract class AbstractStoragePoolAllocator extends AdapterBase implement
 		}
 
 		/*hypervisor type is correct*/
+		// TODO : when creating a standalone volume, offering is passed as NULL, need to 
+		// refine the logic of checking hypervisorType based on offering info
 		Long clusterId = pool.getClusterId();
 		ClusterVO cluster = _clusterDao.findById(clusterId);
-		if (!cluster.getHypervisorType().equalsIgnoreCase(offering.gethypervisorType())) {
+		if (offering != null && !cluster.getHypervisorType().equalsIgnoreCase(offering.gethypervisorType())) {
 			return false;
 		}
 		// check the used size against the total size, skip this host if it's greater than the configured