diff --git a/testing/startSparkCluster.sh b/testing/startSparkCluster.sh
index 8b7ad36dee..5a33c48f00 100755
--- a/testing/startSparkCluster.sh
+++ b/testing/startSparkCluster.sh
@@ -26,13 +26,26 @@ fi
 SPARK_VERSION="${1}"
 HADOOP_VERSION="${2}"
 
+echo ${SPARK_VERSION} | grep "^1.[123].[0-9]" > /dev/null
+if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+  echo "${SPARK_VERSION}" | grep "^1.[12].[0-9]" > /dev/null
+  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+    SPARK_VER_RANGE="<=1.2"
+  else
+    SPARK_VER_RANGE="<=1.3"
+  fi
+else
+  SPARK_VER_RANGE=">1.3"
+fi
+
+set -xe
+
 FWDIR=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE-$0}")
 ZEPPELIN_HOME="$(cd "${FWDIR}/.."; pwd)"
 export SPARK_HOME=${ZEPPELIN_HOME}/spark-${SPARK_VERSION}-bin-hadoop${HADOOP_VERSION}
-echo "SPARK_HOME is ${SPARK_HOME} " 
+echo "SPARK_HOME is ${SPARK_HOME}"
 if [ ! -d "${SPARK_HOME}" ]; then
-    echo "${SPARK_VERSION}" | grep "^1.[12].[0-9]" > /dev/null
-    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+    if [ "${SPARK_VER_RANGE}" == "<=1.2" ]; then
         # spark 1.1.x and spark 1.2.x can be downloaded from archive
         wget -q http://archive.apache.org/dist/spark/spark-${SPARK_VERSION}/spark-${SPARK_VERSION}-bin-hadoop${HADOOP_VERSION}.tgz
     else
@@ -51,16 +64,16 @@ fi
 mkdir -p ${SPARK_HOME}/run
 export SPARK_PID_DIR=${SPARK_HOME}/run
 
-
 # start
 export SPARK_MASTER_PORT=7071
 export SPARK_MASTER_WEBUI_PORT=7072
 export SPARK_WORKER_WEBUI_PORT=8082
 ${SPARK_HOME}/sbin/start-master.sh
 
-echo ${SPARK_VERSION} | grep "^1.[123].[0-9]" > /dev/null
-if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then   # spark 1.3 or prior
+if [ "${SPARK_VER_RANGE}" == "<=1.3" ]; then   # spark 1.3 or prior
     ${SPARK_HOME}/sbin/start-slave.sh 1 `hostname`:${SPARK_MASTER_PORT}
 else
     ${SPARK_HOME}/sbin/start-slave.sh spark://`hostname`:7071
 fi
+
+set +xe
diff --git a/testing/stopSparkCluster.sh b/testing/stopSparkCluster.sh
index 0ae312d0a0..1bf8eac32b 100755
--- a/testing/stopSparkCluster.sh
+++ b/testing/stopSparkCluster.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ fi
 SPARK_VERSION="${1}"
 HADOOP_VERSION="${2}"
 
+set -xe
+
 FWDIR=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE-$0}")
 ZEPPELIN_HOME="$(cd "${FWDIR}/.."; pwd)"
 export SPARK_HOME=${ZEPPELIN_HOME}/spark-${SPARK_VERSION}-bin-hadoop${HADOOP_VERSION}
@@ -32,6 +34,6 @@ export SPARK_HOME=${ZEPPELIN_HOME}/spark-${SPARK_VERSION}-bin-hadoop${HADOOP_VER
 # set create PID dir
 export SPARK_PID_DIR=${SPARK_HOME}/run
 
-
 ${SPARK_HOME}/sbin/spark-daemon.sh stop org.apache.spark.deploy.worker.Worker 1
 ${SPARK_HOME}/sbin/stop-master.sh
+set +xe