diff --git a/check_ceph_osd b/check_ceph_osd
index 4838b58f1fb70985dff26e2f75721bc37f1b8460..8de525537d8cfe428dd573bdbf62b9865f82c012 100755
--- a/check_ceph_osd
+++ b/check_ceph_osd
@@ -88,9 +88,11 @@ case "$1" in
     *)
 esac
 
+# --- check required tools
+ph.require ceph
+
 if ! data=$( sudo -n /bin/ceph osd tree 2>&1 ); then
-    echo "$data"
-    ph.abort "UNKNOWN: ceph is not available or no sudo permissions to execute ceph commands."
+    ph.abort "UNKNOWN: No sudo permissions to execute ceph commands."
 fi
 
 # set default / override from command line params
diff --git a/check_ceph_status b/check_ceph_status
index 33b567e7b8954cfd85ee1372b3cbab559f878e76..59a40227fc83dc98e0ca6dc2792527801b7de38f 100755
--- a/check_ceph_status
+++ b/check_ceph_status
@@ -67,8 +67,7 @@ EOF
 
 function readCephStatus(){
         if ! data=$( sudo -n /bin/ceph status 2>&1 ); then
-                echo "$data"
-                ph.abort "UNKNOWN: ceph is not available or no sudo permissions to execute ceph commands."
+                ph.abort "UNKNOWN: No sudo permissions to execute ceph commands."
         fi
 }
 function getCephStatus(){
@@ -98,6 +97,9 @@ case "$1" in
     *)
 esac
 
+# --- check required tools
+ph.require ceph
+
 readCephStatus
 if [ ! -f $initfile ]; then
         echo "