diff --git a/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/namespace/ServiceUnitZkUtils.java b/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/namespace/ServiceUnitZkUtils.java
index a925857890fb44ac32bc941d4ac5642ca6789212..2967236e1f7c14439a63ae6dda5a67c46dbb175f 100644
--- a/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/namespace/ServiceUnitZkUtils.java
+++ b/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/namespace/ServiceUnitZkUtils.java
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ public final class ServiceUnitZkUtils {
         String brokerUrl = null;
         try {
             byte[] data = zkc.getData(path, false, null);
-            if (data.length == 0) {
+            if (data == null || data.length == 0) {
                 // skip, ephemeral node will not have zero byte
                 return;
             }