diff --git a/ceilometer/cmd/polling.py b/ceilometer/cmd/polling.py
index 1055711e..e4bb583f 100644
--- a/ceilometer/cmd/polling.py
+++ b/ceilometer/cmd/polling.py
@@ -29,9 +29,8 @@ CONF = cfg.CONF
 
 class MultiChoicesOpt(cfg.Opt):
     def __init__(self, name, choices=None, **kwargs):
-        super(MultiChoicesOpt, self).__init__(name,
-                                              type=DeduplicatedCfgList(),
-                                              **kwargs)
+        super(MultiChoicesOpt, self).__init__(
+            name, type=DeduplicatedCfgList(choices), **kwargs)
         self.choices = choices
 
     def _get_argparse_kwargs(self, group, **kwargs):
@@ -45,12 +44,20 @@ class MultiChoicesOpt(cfg.Opt):
 
 
 class DeduplicatedCfgList(cfg.types.List):
+    def __init__(self, choices=None, **kwargs):
+        super(DeduplicatedCfgList, self).__init__(**kwargs)
+        self.choices = choices or []
+
     def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         result = super(DeduplicatedCfgList, self).__call__(*args, **kwargs)
-        if len(result) != len(set(result)):
+        result_set = set(result)
+        if len(result) != len(result_set):
             LOG.warning(_LW("Duplicated values: %s found in CLI options, "
-                            "auto de-duplidated"), result)
-            result = list(set(result))
+                            "auto de-duplicated"), result)
+            result = list(result_set)
+        if self.choices and not (result_set <= set(self.choices)):
+            raise Exception('Valid values are %s, but found %s'
+                            % (self.choices, result))
         return result
 
 
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/functional/test_bin.py b/ceilometer/tests/functional/test_bin.py
index cbd5c1af..74b21ee7 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/functional/test_bin.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/functional/test_bin.py
@@ -233,6 +233,19 @@ class BinApiTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
 class BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         super(BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase, self).setUp()
+        self.tempfile = None
+        self.subp = None
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        if self.subp:
+            try:
+                self.subp.kill()
+            except OSError:
+                pass
+        os.remove(self.tempfile)
+        super(BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase, self).tearDown()
+
+    def test_starting_with_duplication_namespaces(self):
         content = ("[DEFAULT]\n"
                    "rpc_backend=fake\n"
                    "[database]\n"
@@ -242,15 +255,6 @@ class BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
         self.tempfile = fileutils.write_to_tempfile(content=content,
                                                     prefix='ceilometer',
                                                     suffix='.conf')
-        self.subp = None
-
-    def tearDown(self):
-        super(BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase, self).tearDown()
-        if self.subp:
-            self.subp.kill()
-        os.remove(self.tempfile)
-
-    def test_starting_with_duplication_namespaces(self):
         self.subp = subprocess.Popen(['ceilometer-polling',
                                       "--config-file=%s" % self.tempfile,
                                       "--polling-namespaces",
@@ -259,4 +263,23 @@ class BinCeilometerPollingServiceTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
                                      stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
         out = self.subp.stderr.read(1024)
         self.assertIn(b'Duplicated values: [\'compute\', \'compute\'] '
-                      b'found in CLI options, auto de-duplidated', out)
+                      b'found in CLI options, auto de-duplicated', out)
+
+    def test_polling_namespaces_invalid_value_in_config(self):
+        content = ("[DEFAULT]\n"
+                   "rpc_backend=fake\n"
+                   "polling_namespaces = ['central']\n"
+                   "[database]\n"
+                   "connection=log://localhost\n")
+        if six.PY3:
+            content = content.encode('utf-8')
+        self.tempfile = fileutils.write_to_tempfile(content=content,
+                                                    prefix='ceilometer',
+                                                    suffix='.conf')
+        self.subp = subprocess.Popen(
+            ["ceilometer-polling", "--config-file=%s" % self.tempfile],
+            stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        __, err = self.subp.communicate()
+        expected = ("Exception: Valid values are ['compute', 'central', "
+                    "'ipmi'], but found [\"['central']\"]")
+        self.assertIn(expected, err)