diff --git a/cinder/exception.py b/cinder/exception.py
index 2b9d81c0364..654a7a7ee8d 100644
--- a/cinder/exception.py
+++ b/cinder/exception.py
@@ -1213,8 +1213,3 @@ class ServiceUserTokenNoAuth(CinderException):
     message = _("The [service_user] send_service_user_token option was "
                 "requested, but no service auth could be loaded. Please check "
                 "the [service_user] configuration section.")
-
-
-class UnsupportedNVMETProtocol(Invalid):
-    message = _("An invalid 'target_protocol' "
-                "value was provided: %(protocol)s")
diff --git a/cinder/tests/unit/targets/test_nvmeof_driver.py b/cinder/tests/unit/targets/test_nvmeof_driver.py
index 31f80ef3051..102a41a6eed 100644
--- a/cinder/tests/unit/targets/test_nvmeof_driver.py
+++ b/cinder/tests/unit/targets/test_nvmeof_driver.py
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ class TestNVMeOFDriver(tf.TargetDriverFixture):
 
     def test_invalid_target_protocol(self):
         self.configuration.target_protocol = 'iser'
-        self.assertRaises(exception.UnsupportedNVMETProtocol,
+        self.assertRaises(nvmeof.UnsupportedNVMETProtocol,
                           FakeNVMeOFDriver,
                           root_helper=utils.get_root_helper(),
                           configuration=self.configuration)
diff --git a/cinder/volume/targets/nvmeof.py b/cinder/volume/targets/nvmeof.py
index 8a97e9e3d31..c4d30062c4d 100644
--- a/cinder/volume/targets/nvmeof.py
+++ b/cinder/volume/targets/nvmeof.py
@@ -15,12 +15,18 @@ import abc
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 
 from cinder import exception
+from cinder.i18n import _
 from cinder.volume.targets import driver
 
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+class UnsupportedNVMETProtocol(exception.Invalid):
+    message = _("An invalid 'target_protocol' "
+                "value was provided: %(protocol)s")
+
+
 class NVMeOF(driver.Target):
 
     """Target object for block storage devices with RDMA transport."""
@@ -44,7 +50,7 @@ class NVMeOF(driver.Target):
             self.nvme_transport_type = self.target_protocol_map[
                 target_protocol]
         else:
-            raise exception.UnsupportedNVMETProtocol(
+            raise UnsupportedNVMETProtocol(
                 protocol=target_protocol
             )