diff --git a/ironicclient/common/base.py b/ironicclient/common/base.py
index 08727525a..294f06ac7 100644
--- a/ironicclient/common/base.py
+++ b/ironicclient/common/base.py
@@ -72,8 +72,14 @@ class Manager(object):
 
         :param resource_id: Identifier of the resource.
         :param fields: List of specific fields to be returned.
+        :raises exc.ValidationError: For invalid resource_id arg value.
         """
 
+        if not resource_id:
+            raise exc.ValidationError(
+                "The identifier argument is invalid. "
+                "Value provided: {!r}".format(resource_id))
+
         if fields is not None:
             resource_id = '%s?fields=' % resource_id
             resource_id += ','.join(fields)
diff --git a/ironicclient/tests/unit/common/test_base.py b/ironicclient/tests/unit/common/test_base.py
index caaf07c16..3575e33ce 100644
--- a/ironicclient/tests/unit/common/test_base.py
+++ b/ironicclient/tests/unit/common/test_base.py
@@ -131,6 +131,12 @@ class ManagerTestCase(testtools.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(resource_id, resource.uuid)
         self.assertEqual(TESTABLE_RESOURCE['attribute1'], resource.attribute1)
 
+    def test__get_invalid_resource_id_raises(self):
+        resource_ids = [[], {}, False, '', 0, None, ()]
+        for resource_id in resource_ids:
+            self.assertRaises(exc.ValidationError, self.manager._get,
+                              resource_id=resource_id)
+
     def test__get_as_dict(self):
         resource_id = TESTABLE_RESOURCE['uuid']
         resource = self.manager._get_as_dict(resource_id)