diff --git a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/ExceptionUtils.java b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/ExceptionUtils.java
index 459648fdc82..601a2529b90 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/ExceptionUtils.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/ExceptionUtils.java
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ public final class ExceptionUtils {
 
 		Throwable t = throwable;
 		while (t != null) {
-			if (t.getMessage().contains(searchMessage)) {
+			if (t.getMessage() != null && t.getMessage().contains(searchMessage)) {
 				return Optional.of(t);
 			} else {
 				t = t.getCause();
diff --git a/flink-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/test/runtime/NettyEpollITCase.java b/flink-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/test/runtime/NettyEpollITCase.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e8914eca1a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flink-tests/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/test/runtime/NettyEpollITCase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.flink.test.runtime;
+
+import org.apache.flink.api.java.functions.KeySelector;
+import org.apache.flink.configuration.Configuration;
+import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.datastream.DataStream;
+import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment;
+import org.apache.flink.test.util.MiniClusterResource;
+import org.apache.flink.test.util.MiniClusterResource.MiniClusterResourceConfiguration;
+import org.apache.flink.util.TestLogger;
+
+import org.junit.AssumptionViolatedException;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import static org.apache.flink.runtime.io.network.netty.NettyConfig.TRANSPORT_TYPE;
+import static org.apache.flink.util.ExceptionUtils.findThrowableWithMessage;
+
+/**
+ * Test network stack with taskmanager.network.netty.transport set to epoll. This test can only run
+ * on linux. On other platforms it's basically a NO-OP. See
+ * https://github.com/apache/flink-shaded/issues/30
+ */
+public class NettyEpollITCase extends TestLogger {
+
+	private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(NettyEpollITCase.class);
+
+	private static final int NUM_TASK_MANAGERS = 2;
+
+	@Test
+	public void testNettyEpoll() throws Exception {
+		MiniClusterResource cluster = trySetUpCluster();
+		try {
+			StreamExecutionEnvironment env = StreamExecutionEnvironment.getExecutionEnvironment();
+			env.setParallelism(NUM_TASK_MANAGERS);
+			env.getConfig().disableSysoutLogging();
+
+			DataStream<Integer> input = env.fromElements(1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 42);
+			input.keyBy(new KeySelector<Integer, Integer>() {
+					@Override
+					public Integer getKey(Integer value) throws Exception {
+						return value;
+					}
+				})
+				.sum(0)
+				.print();
+
+			env.execute();
+		}
+		finally {
+			cluster.after();
+		}
+	}
+
+	private MiniClusterResource trySetUpCluster() throws Exception {
+		try {
+			Configuration config = new Configuration();
+			config.setString(TRANSPORT_TYPE, "epoll");
+			MiniClusterResource cluster = new MiniClusterResource(
+				new MiniClusterResourceConfiguration(
+					config,
+					NUM_TASK_MANAGERS,
+					1),
+				true);
+			cluster.before();
+			return cluster;
+		}
+		catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError ex) {
+			// If we failed to init netty because we are not on Linux platform, abort the test.
+			if (findThrowableWithMessage(ex, "Only supported on Linux").isPresent()) {
+				throw new AssumptionViolatedException("This test is only supported on linux");
+			}
+			throw ex;
+		}
+	}
+}