diff --git a/nano/node/cli.cpp b/nano/node/cli.cpp
index 3c6d6bfd8f..3d45d27882 100644
--- a/nano/node/cli.cpp
+++ b/nano/node/cli.cpp
@@ -501,11 +501,13 @@ std::error_code nano::handle_node_options (boost::program_options::variables_map
 			if (error)
 			{
 				std::cerr << "There was an error migrating" << std::endl;
+				std::exit (1);
 			}
 		}
 		catch (std::exception const & e)
 		{
 			std::cerr << "Error initializing node for migration: " << e.what () << std::endl;
+			std::exit (1);
 		}
 	}
 	else if (vm.count ("rollback"))
diff --git a/systest/migrate_to_rocksdb.sh b/systest/migrate_to_rocksdb.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..66fd8f04fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/systest/migrate_to_rocksdb.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -eux
+
+# Test database migration from LMDB to RocksDB
+
+DATADIR=$(mktemp -d)
+
+# Force lmdb backend
+NANO_BACKEND=lmdb $NANO_NODE_EXE --initialize --data_path $DATADIR --network test
+
+if [ ! -f "$DATADIR/data.ldb" ]; then
+	echo "ERROR: LMDB data.ldb file not found"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+$NANO_NODE_EXE --data_path $DATADIR --network test --migrate_database_lmdb_to_rocksdb
+
+if [ ! -d "$DATADIR/rocksdb" ]; then
+	echo "ERROR: RocksDB directory not found"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+exit 0