diff --git a/testsuite/expect/globals b/testsuite/expect/globals
index 890821a7108c8db9b2fad3bab6b06f8c10f203c3..d229ddb0d97631bd70f140d62accfd5410ffe2ad 100755
--- a/testsuite/expect/globals
+++ b/testsuite/expect/globals
@@ -2414,13 +2414,19 @@ proc make_bash_script { script_name script_contents } {
 #
 # Purpose: Given a hostname, return it's numeric suffix
 #
-# Returns: numerical suffix for input 'hostname'
+# Returns: numerical suffix for input 'hostname' or -1 if not a number
 #
 # Input: hostname -- hostname for which to return suffix
 #
 ################################################################
 proc get_suffix { hostname } {
 	set host_len [string length $hostname]
+	set host_inx [expr $host_len-1]
+	set host_char [string index $hostname $host_inx]
+	if {[string compare $host_char "0"] < 0 || [string compare $host_char "9"] > 0} {
+		return -1
+	}
+
 	for {set host_inx [expr $host_len-1]} {$host_inx >= 0} {incr host_inx -1} {
 		set host_char [string index $hostname $host_inx]
 		if {[string compare $host_char "0"] < 0} { break }
diff --git a/testsuite/expect/test1.83 b/testsuite/expect/test1.83
index 5cbd451bd4a030c7a449788356c611dceaaba967..9274038636caf3f11913b4e4480cbb98acf3f617 100755
--- a/testsuite/expect/test1.83
+++ b/testsuite/expect/test1.83
@@ -143,6 +143,11 @@ set host_0_num [get_suffix $host_0_name]
 set host_1_num [get_suffix $host_1_name]
 set host_2_num [get_suffix $host_2_name]
 
+if {$host_0_num == -1 || $host_1_num == -1 || $host_2_num == -1} {
+	send_user "\nWARNING: node names lack numeric suffix\n"
+	exit $exit_code
+}
+
 if {$host_1_num != [expr $host_0_num + 1]} {
 	send_user "\nFAILURE: node sequence number not contiguous\n"
 	set exit_code   1