diff --git a/server/core/config.cc b/server/core/config.cc
index fa52c8271..b2416aac7 100644
--- a/server/core/config.cc
+++ b/server/core/config.cc
@@ -1436,9 +1436,7 @@ static bool config_load_and_process(const char* filename, bool (* process_config
                 rval = config_load_dir(dir, &dcontext, &config_context);
             }
 
-            /** Create the persisted configuration directory if it doesn't exist */
             const char* persist_cnf = get_config_persistdir();
-            mxs_mkdir_all(persist_cnf, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IROTH | S_IXOTH);
 
             if (config_get_global_options()->load_persisted_configs
                 && is_directory(persist_cnf) && contains_cnf_files(persist_cnf))
diff --git a/server/core/gateway.cc b/server/core/gateway.cc
index 87b14ed9a..00bb8b535 100644
--- a/server/core/gateway.cc
+++ b/server/core/gateway.cc
@@ -1810,10 +1810,7 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
             break;
 
         case '?':
-            if (check_paths())
-            {
-                usage();
-            }
+            usage();
             rc = EXIT_SUCCESS;
             goto return_main;
 
@@ -2047,6 +2044,11 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
         goto return_main;
     }
 
+    // Try to create the persisted configuration directory. This needs to be done before the path validation
+    // done by check_paths() to prevent it from failing. The directory wont' exist if it's the first time
+    // MaxScale is starting up with this configuration.
+    mxs_mkdir_all(get_config_persistdir(), S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IROTH | S_IXOTH);
+
     if (!check_paths())
     {
         rc = MAXSCALE_BADCONFIG;