diff --git a/software/webapp/src/main/java/org/apache/brooklyn/entity/proxy/nginx/NginxDefaultConfigGenerator.java b/software/webapp/src/main/java/org/apache/brooklyn/entity/proxy/nginx/NginxDefaultConfigGenerator.java
index bbe81aa8c..341bf67bf 100644
--- a/software/webapp/src/main/java/org/apache/brooklyn/entity/proxy/nginx/NginxDefaultConfigGenerator.java
+++ b/software/webapp/src/main/java/org/apache/brooklyn/entity/proxy/nginx/NginxDefaultConfigGenerator.java
@@ -78,7 +78,9 @@ public String generateConfigFile(NginxDriver driver, NginxController nginx) {
             config.append("  }\n");
             config.append("  server {\n");
             config.append(getCodeForServerConfig());
-            appendCodeForProxySSLConfig(nginx.getId(), config, "    ", globalSslConfig);
+            if (globalSslConfig != null) {
+                appendCodeForProxySSLConfig(nginx.getId(), config, "    ", globalSslConfig);
+            }
             config.append("    listen "+nginx.getPort()+";\n");
             if (nginx.getDomain()!=null)
                 config.append("    server_name "+nginx.getDomain()+";\n");