diff --git a/engine/orchestration/src/com/cloud/agent/manager/ClusteredAgentManagerImpl.java b/engine/orchestration/src/com/cloud/agent/manager/ClusteredAgentManagerImpl.java
index d218cf4580b..ba82938fcdc 100755
--- a/engine/orchestration/src/com/cloud/agent/manager/ClusteredAgentManagerImpl.java
+++ b/engine/orchestration/src/com/cloud/agent/manager/ClusteredAgentManagerImpl.java
@@ -498,7 +498,7 @@ public class ClusteredAgentManagerImpl extends AgentManagerImpl implements Clust
                 } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
                     throw new CloudRuntimeException("Unable to resolve " + ip);
                 }
-                SocketChannel ch1;
+                SocketChannel ch1 = null;
                 try {
                     ch1 = SocketChannel.open(new InetSocketAddress(addr, Port.value()));
                     ch1.configureBlocking(true); // make sure we are working at blocking mode