diff --git a/include/maxscale/config.hh b/include/maxscale/config.hh
index 917ff0f99..342572025 100644
--- a/include/maxscale/config.hh
+++ b/include/maxscale/config.hh
@@ -434,6 +434,20 @@ public:
      */
     bool contains(const std::string& key) const;
 
+    /**
+     * Check if any of the given keys are defined
+     *
+     * @param keys The keys to check
+     *
+     * @return True if at least one of the keys is defined
+     */
+    bool contains_any(const std::initializer_list<std::string>& keys) const
+    {
+        return std::any_of(keys.begin(), keys.end(), [this](const std::string& a) {
+                               return contains(a);
+                           });
+    }
+
     /**
      * Set a key-value combination. If the key doesn't exist, it is added. The function is static
      * to handle the special case of params being empty. This is needed until the config management
diff --git a/server/core/config_runtime.cc b/server/core/config_runtime.cc
index 52934d148..859447a31 100644
--- a/server/core/config_runtime.cc
+++ b/server/core/config_runtime.cc
@@ -1893,6 +1893,11 @@ bool runtime_create_server_from_json(json_t* json)
             {
                 params.set_multiple(extract_parameters_from_json(json));
 
+                if (params.contains_any({CN_SSL_KEY, CN_SSL_CERT, CN_SSL_CA_CERT}))
+                {
+                    params.set(CN_SSL, "true");
+                }
+
                 if (Server* server = Server::server_alloc(name, params))
                 {
                     if (link_server_to_objects(server, relations) && server->serialize())