diff --git a/roles/nagios_client/files/scripts/check_ipa_replication b/roles/nagios_client/files/scripts/check_ipa_replication
index 5d82c1a0d2..830a6a6606 100644
--- a/roles/nagios_client/files/scripts/check_ipa_replication
+++ b/roles/nagios_client/files/scripts/check_ipa_replication
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ except Exception as e:
 for rhost in replication:
     plugin.add_summary("Replica %s Status: %s" % (rhost[1]['nsDS5ReplicaHost'][0], rhost[1]['nsds5replicaLastUpdateStatus'][0]))
 
-    status = rhost[1]['nsds5replicaLastUpdateStatus'][0]
+    status = rhost[1]['nsds5replicaLastUpdateStatus'][0].decode('utf-8')
     code = status[:2]
     if status.startswith('Error ('):
         # IPA >=4.4.0