diff --git a/server/core/gateway.cc b/server/core/gateway.cc
index 47d298f9f..e986dfe79 100644
--- a/server/core/gateway.cc
+++ b/server/core/gateway.cc
@@ -2062,7 +2062,17 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
     if (cnf->admin_enabled)
     {
-        if (mxs_admin_init())
+        bool success = mxs_admin_init();
+
+        if (!success && strcmp(cnf->admin_host, "::") == 0)
+        {
+            MXS_WARNING("Failed to bind on address '::', attempting to "
+                        "bind on IPv4 address '0.0.0.0'.");
+            strcpy(cnf->admin_host, "0.0.0.0");
+            success = mxs_admin_init();
+        }
+
+        if (success)
         {
             MXS_NOTICE("Started REST API on [%s]:%u", cnf->admin_host, cnf->admin_port);
         }
@@ -2075,7 +2085,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
         }
     }
 
-
     MXS_NOTICE("MaxScale started with %d worker threads, each with a stack size of %lu bytes.",
                n_threads, thread_stack_size);