diff --git a/nomad/fsm.go b/nomad/fsm.go
index 5ce00d3884f..39b4cf8f06f 100644
--- a/nomad/fsm.go
+++ b/nomad/fsm.go
@@ -2140,6 +2140,9 @@ func (s *nomadSnapshot) persistSchedulerConfig(sink raft.SnapshotSink,
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	if schedConfig == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
 	// Write out scheduler config
 	sink.Write([]byte{byte(SchedulerConfigSnapshot)})
 	if err := encoder.Encode(schedConfig); err != nil {
@@ -2156,6 +2159,9 @@ func (s *nomadSnapshot) persistClusterMetadata(sink raft.SnapshotSink,
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	if clusterMetadata == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
 
 	// Write out the cluster metadata
 	sink.Write([]byte{byte(ClusterMetadataSnapshot)})
diff --git a/nomad/state/state_store.go b/nomad/state/state_store.go
index 9b0eca9cc16..81cba1edec8 100644
--- a/nomad/state/state_store.go
+++ b/nomad/state/state_store.go
@@ -5114,7 +5114,7 @@ func (s *StateStore) setClusterMetadata(txn *memdb.Txn, meta *structs.ClusterMet
 
 	if existing != nil {
 		existingClusterID := existing.(*structs.ClusterMetadata).ClusterID
-		if meta.ClusterID != existingClusterID {
+		if meta.ClusterID != existingClusterID && existingClusterID != "" {
 			// there is a bug in cluster ID detection
 			return fmt.Errorf("refusing to set new cluster id, previous: %s, new: %s", existingClusterID, meta.ClusterID)
 		}