diff --git a/Documentation/Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md b/Documentation/Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md
index 3e471104d..721e180da 100644
--- a/Documentation/Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md
+++ b/Documentation/Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md
@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ form.
 ### Global Settings
 
 The global settings, in a section named `[MaxScale]`, allow various parameters
-that affect MariaDB MaxScale as a whole to be tuned.
+that affect MariaDB MaxScale as a whole to be tuned. This section must be
+defined in the root configuration file which by default is `/etc/maxscale.cnf`.
 
 #### `threads`
 
diff --git a/maxscale-system-test/testconnections.cpp b/maxscale-system-test/testconnections.cpp
index 5895013f9..a2d6f908b 100644
--- a/maxscale-system-test/testconnections.cpp
+++ b/maxscale-system-test/testconnections.cpp
@@ -642,8 +642,8 @@ void TestConnections::init_maxscale(int m)
                           "chmod a+x %s;"
                           "%s"
                           "iptables -F INPUT;"
-                          "truncate -s 0 %s/maxscale.log;"
-                          "truncate -s 0 %s/maxscale1.log;"
+                          "rm -f %s/maxscale.log;"
+                          "rm -f %s/maxscale1.log;"
                           "rm -rf /tmp/core* /dev/shm/* /var/lib/maxscale/maxscale.cnf.d/ /var/lib/maxscale/*;"
                           "%s",
                           maxscales->access_homedir[m],
diff --git a/server/core/config.cc b/server/core/config.cc
index df164a01b..d3e122c1b 100644
--- a/server/core/config.cc
+++ b/server/core/config.cc
@@ -523,6 +523,8 @@ static bool is_empty_string(const char* str)
     return true;
 }
 
+static bool is_root_config_file = true;
+
 /**
  * Config item handler for the ini file reader
  *
@@ -573,7 +575,15 @@ static int ini_handler(void *userdata, const char *section, const char *name, co
 
     if (strcmp(section, CN_GATEWAY) == 0 || strcasecmp(section, CN_MAXSCALE) == 0)
     {
-        return handle_global_item(name, value);
+        if (is_root_config_file)
+        {
+            return handle_global_item(name, value);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            MXS_ERROR("The [maxscale] section must only be defined in the root configuration file.");
+            return 0;
+        }
     }
     else if (strlen(section) == 0)
     {
@@ -899,6 +909,7 @@ config_load_and_process(const char* filename, bool (*process_config)(CONFIG_CONT
 
         if (config_load_single_file(filename, &dcontext, &ccontext))
         {
+            is_root_config_file = false;
             const char DIR_SUFFIX[] = ".d";
 
             char dir[strlen(filename) + sizeof(DIR_SUFFIX)];