diff --git a/pkg/wekafs/apiclient/interfacegroup.go b/pkg/wekafs/apiclient/interfacegroup.go
index 82ce4f604..2bd751f5c 100644
--- a/pkg/wekafs/apiclient/interfacegroup.go
+++ b/pkg/wekafs/apiclient/interfacegroup.go
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ func (a *ApiClient) GetNfsInterfaceGroup(ctx context.Context, name string) *Inte
 // TODO: need to do it much more sophisticated way to distribute load
 func (a *ApiClient) GetNfsMountIp(ctx context.Context, interfaceGroupName string) (string, error) {
 	// if override is set, use it
-	if len(a.Credentials.NfsTargetIPs) > 0 {
+	if len(a.Credentials.NfsTargetIPs) > 0 && a.Credentials.NfsTargetIPs[0] != "" {
 		ips := a.Credentials.NfsTargetIPs
 		idx := rand.Intn(len(ips))
 		ip := ips[idx]
diff --git a/pkg/wekafs/wekafs.go b/pkg/wekafs/wekafs.go
index 4e832b422..cab2a4bc4 100644
--- a/pkg/wekafs/wekafs.go
+++ b/pkg/wekafs/wekafs.go
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ func (api *ApiStore) fromSecrets(ctx context.Context, secrets map[string]string,
 		nfsTargetIpsRaw := strings.TrimSpace(strings.ReplaceAll(strings.TrimSuffix(secrets["nfsTargetIps"], "\n"), "\n", ","))
 		nfsTargetIps = func() []string {
 			var ret []string
+			if nfsTargetIpsRaw == "" {
+				return ret
+			}
 			for _, s := range strings.Split(nfsTargetIpsRaw, ",") {
 				ret = append(ret, strings.TrimSpace(strings.TrimSuffix(s, "\n")))
 			}