diff --git a/lib/setup.php b/lib/setup.php
index ba2d627fb33..f8990b089d7 100644
--- a/lib/setup.php
+++ b/lib/setup.php
@@ -183,6 +183,17 @@ if (file_exists("$CFG->dataroot/climaintenance.html")) {
     }
 }
 
+if (CLI_SCRIPT) {
+    // sometimes people use different PHP binary for web and CLI, make 100% sure they have the supported PHP version
+    if (version_compare(phpversion(), '5.3.2') < 0) {
+        $phpversion = phpversion();
+        // do NOT localise - lang strings would not work here and we CAN NOT move it to later place
+        echo "Moodle 2.1 or later requires at least PHP 5.3.2 (currently using version $phpversion).\n";
+        echo "Some servers may have multiple PHP versions installed, are you using the correct executable?\n";
+        exit(1);
+    }
+}
+
 // Detect ajax scripts - they are similar to CLI because we can not redirect, output html, etc.
 if (!defined('AJAX_SCRIPT')) {
     define('AJAX_SCRIPT', false);