diff --git a/pkg/cli/server/server.go b/pkg/cli/server/server.go
index e28fdfa944..6d10af4a5e 100644
--- a/pkg/cli/server/server.go
+++ b/pkg/cli/server/server.go
@@ -174,7 +174,13 @@ func run(app *cli.Context, cfg *cmds.Server, leaderControllers server.CustomCont
 		serverConfig.ControlConfig.DisableScheduler = true
 		serverConfig.ControlConfig.DisableCCM = true
 
-		close(agentReady)
+		// only close the agentReady channel in case of k3s restoration, because k3s does not start
+		// the agent until server returns successfully, unlike rke2's agent which starts in parallel
+		// with the server
+		if serverConfig.ControlConfig.SupervisorPort == serverConfig.ControlConfig.HTTPSPort {
+			close(agentReady)
+		}
+
 		dataDir, err := datadir.LocalHome(cfg.DataDir, false)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err