diff --git a/etcdmain/etcd.go b/etcdmain/etcd.go
index b2666af47..5d9124d5d 100644
--- a/etcdmain/etcd.go
+++ b/etcdmain/etcd.go
@@ -159,6 +159,12 @@ func Main() {
 				}
 				os.Exit(1)
 			}
+			if etcdserver.IsDiscoveryError(err) {
+				plog.Errorf("%v", err)
+				plog.Infof("discovery token %s was used, but failed to bootstrap the cluster.", cfg.durl)
+				plog.Infof("please generate a new discovery token and try to bootstrap again.")
+				os.Exit(1)
+			}
 			plog.Fatalf("%v", err)
 		}
 		os.Exit(1)
diff --git a/etcdserver/errors.go b/etcdserver/errors.go
index 22b443aba..3d1fa24d1 100644
--- a/etcdserver/errors.go
+++ b/etcdserver/errors.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ package etcdserver
 
 import (
 	"errors"
+	"fmt"
 
 	etcdErr "github.com/coreos/etcd/error"
 )
@@ -37,3 +38,17 @@ func isKeyNotFound(err error) bool {
 	e, ok := err.(*etcdErr.Error)
 	return ok && e.ErrorCode == etcdErr.EcodeKeyNotFound
 }
+
+type discoveryError struct {
+	op  string
+	err error
+}
+
+func (e discoveryError) Error() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("failed to %s discovery cluster (%v)", e.op, e.err)
+}
+
+func IsDiscoveryError(err error) bool {
+	_, ok := err.(*discoveryError)
+	return ok
+}
diff --git a/etcdserver/server.go b/etcdserver/server.go
index 61d4c8aae..e9bc60ca9 100644
--- a/etcdserver/server.go
+++ b/etcdserver/server.go
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ func NewServer(cfg *ServerConfig) (*EtcdServer, error) {
 		if cfg.ShouldDiscover() {
 			str, err := discovery.JoinCluster(cfg.DiscoveryURL, cfg.DiscoveryProxy, m.ID, cfg.InitialPeerURLsMap.String())
 			if err != nil {
-				return nil, err
+				return nil, &discoveryError{op: "join", err: err}
 			}
 			urlsmap, err := types.NewURLsMap(str)
 			if err != nil {