diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxn.java b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxn.java
index 269fcd942cc..673feca6bb8 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxn.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxn.java
@@ -473,9 +473,13 @@ private void receiveMessage(ByteBuf message) {
                         packetReceived(4 + bb.remaining());
 
                         ZooKeeperServer zks = this.zkServer;
-                        if (zks == null || !zks.isRunning()) {
+
+                        if (zks == null) {
                             throw new IOException("ZK down");
+                        } else if (!zks.isRunning()){
+                            LOG.debug("Zks not running but keep processing");
                         }
+
                         if (initialized) {
                             // TODO: if zks.processPacket() is changed to take a ByteBuffer[],
                             // we could implement zero-copy queueing.
@@ -521,11 +525,11 @@ private void receiveMessage(ByteBuf message) {
                             throw new IOException("Len error " + len);
                         }
                         ZooKeeperServer zks = this.zkServer;
-                        if (zks == null || !zks.isRunning()) {
-                            throw new IOException("ZK down");
+
+                        if (zks != null && zks.isRunning()) {
+                            // checkRequestSize will throw IOException if request is rejected
+                            zks.checkRequestSizeWhenReceivingMessage(len);
                         }
-                        // checkRequestSize will throw IOException if request is rejected
-                        zks.checkRequestSizeWhenReceivingMessage(len);
                         bb = ByteBuffer.allocate(len);
                     }
                 }
diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxnFactory.java b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxnFactory.java
index 0891021f35d..36fc10cc178 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxnFactory.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/NettyServerCnxnFactory.java
@@ -225,15 +225,6 @@ public void channelActive(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) throws Exception {
             NettyServerCnxn cnxn = new NettyServerCnxn(channel, zkServer, NettyServerCnxnFactory.this);
             ctx.channel().attr(CONNECTION_ATTRIBUTE).set(cnxn);
 
-            // Check the zkServer assigned to the cnxn is still running,
-            // close it before starting the heavy TLS handshake
-            if (!cnxn.isZKServerRunning()) {
-                LOG.warn("Zookeeper server is not running, close the connection before starting the TLS handshake");
-                ServerMetrics.getMetrics().CNXN_CLOSED_WITHOUT_ZK_SERVER_RUNNING.add(1);
-                channel.close();
-                return;
-            }
-
             if (handshakeThrottlingEnabled) {
                 // Favor to check and throttling even in dual mode which
                 // accepts both secure and insecure connections, since
@@ -264,9 +255,18 @@ public void channelActive(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) throws Exception {
                 if (remoteAddress != null
                         && !((InetSocketAddress) remoteAddress).getAddress().isLoopbackAddress()) {
                     LOG.trace("NettyChannelHandler channelActive: remote={} local={}", remoteAddress, cnxn.getChannel().localAddress());
-                    zkServer.serverStats().incrementNonMTLSRemoteConnCount();
+
+                    if (zkServer == null || zkServer.serverStats() == null) {
+                        LOG.warn("zkServer is not initialized " + (zkServer == null ? "" : "for stats ") + " no remote connection stats update done");
+                    } else {
+                        zkServer.serverStats().incrementNonMTLSRemoteConnCount();
+                    }
                 } else {
-                    zkServer.serverStats().incrementNonMTLSLocalConnCount();
+                    if (zkServer == null || zkServer.serverStats() == null) {
+                        LOG.warn("zkServer is not initialized " + (zkServer == null ? "" : "for stats ") + " no local connection count stats update done" );
+                    } else {
+                        zkServer.serverStats().incrementNonMTLSLocalConnCount();
+                    }
                 }
             }
         }