diff --git a/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.cpp b/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.cpp
index 0ffa906a8..5e2d9bc40 100644
--- a/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.cpp
+++ b/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.cpp
@@ -17,11 +17,17 @@
 namespace CAROM {
 
 HDFDatabaseMPIO::HDFDatabaseMPIO() :
+#if HDF5_IS_PARALLEL
     HDFDatabase(),
     d_rank(-1),
     d_comm(MPI_COMM_NULL)
+#else
+    HDFDatabase()
+#endif
 {}
 
+#if HDF5_IS_PARALLEL
+
 bool
 HDFDatabaseMPIO::create(
     const std::string& file_name,
@@ -627,4 +633,6 @@ HDFDatabaseMPIO::writeAttribute(
 #endif
 }
 
+#endif
+
 }
diff --git a/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.h b/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.h
index f8cfa914b..6686a95fe 100644
--- a/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.h
+++ b/lib/utils/HDFDatabaseMPIO.h
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class HDFDatabaseMPIO : public HDFDatabase
     virtual
     ~HDFDatabaseMPIO() {}
 
+#if HDF5_IS_PARALLEL
     /**
      * @brief Creates a new HDF5 database file for distributed data
      *        with the supplied name.
@@ -416,6 +417,7 @@ class HDFDatabaseMPIO : public HDFDatabase
         int block_offset_global,
         int block_size_global,
         int stride_global);
+#endif
 };
 
 }
diff --git a/unit_tests/test_HDFDatabase.cpp b/unit_tests/test_HDFDatabase.cpp
index 1fc774051..68b43beb7 100644
--- a/unit_tests/test_HDFDatabase.cpp
+++ b/unit_tests/test_HDFDatabase.cpp
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ TEST(GoogleTestFramework, GoogleTestFrameworkFound) {
     SUCCEED();
 }
 
+#if HDF5_IS_PARALLEL
+
 TEST(HDF5, Test_parallel_writing)
 {
     int nproc, rank;
@@ -537,6 +539,8 @@ TEST(HDF5, Test_selective_parallel_reading)
         EXPECT_TRUE(data[d] == d + offsets[rank] * ncol);
 }
 
+#endif
+
 TEST(BasisGeneratorIO, HDFDatabase)
 {
     // Get the rank of this process, and the number of processors.