diff --git a/hbase-rest/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/RESTServer.java b/hbase-rest/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/RESTServer.java
index c6f769ee605..2ad57e1b742 100644
--- a/hbase-rest/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/RESTServer.java
+++ b/hbase-rest/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/RESTServer.java
@@ -382,8 +382,13 @@ public class RESTServer implements Constants {
       this.infoServer.setAttribute("hbase.conf", conf);
       this.infoServer.start();
     }
-    // start server
-    server.start();
+    try {
+      // start server
+      server.start();
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      LOG.error(HBaseMarkers.FATAL, "Failed to start server", e);
+      throw e;
+    }
   }
 
   public synchronized void join() throws Exception {
@@ -437,7 +442,6 @@ public class RESTServer implements Constants {
       server.run();
       server.join();
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      LOG.error(HBaseMarkers.FATAL, "Failed to start server", e);
       System.exit(1);
     }