diff --git a/src/cluster.c b/src/cluster.c
index 147668a2e3..b434bcc028 100644
--- a/src/cluster.c
+++ b/src/cluster.c
@@ -460,8 +460,8 @@ void clusterSaveConfigOrDie(int do_fsync) {
     }
 }
 
-/* Lock the cluster config using flock(), and leaks the file descriptor used to
- * acquire the lock so that the file will be locked forever.
+/* Lock the cluster config using flock(), and retain the file descriptor used to
+ * acquire the lock so that the file will be locked as long as the process is up.
  *
  * This works because we always update nodes.conf with a new version
  * in-place, reopening the file, and writing to it in place (later adjusting
@@ -500,8 +500,8 @@ int clusterLockConfig(char *filename) {
         close(fd);
         return C_ERR;
     }
-    /* Lock acquired: leak the 'fd' by not closing it, so that we'll retain the
-     * lock to the file as long as the process exists.
+    /* Lock acquired: leak the 'fd' by not closing it until shutdown time, so that
+     * we'll retain the lock to the file as long as the process exists.
      *
      * After fork, the child process will get the fd opened by the parent process,
      * we need save `fd` to `cluster_config_file_lock_fd`, so that in redisFork(),
diff --git a/src/server.c b/src/server.c
index 88ace5d3ae..4db60dc6bb 100644
--- a/src/server.c
+++ b/src/server.c
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 #include <arpa/inet.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
+#include <sys/file.h>
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #include <sys/resource.h>
 #include <sys/uio.h>
@@ -4216,6 +4217,12 @@ int finishShutdown(void) {
 
     /* Close the listening sockets. Apparently this allows faster restarts. */
     closeListeningSockets(1);
+
+    /* Unlock the cluster config file before shutdown */
+    if (server.cluster_enabled && server.cluster_config_file_lock_fd != -1) {
+        flock(server.cluster_config_file_lock_fd, LOCK_UN|LOCK_NB);
+    }
+
     serverLog(LL_WARNING,"%s is now ready to exit, bye bye...",
         server.sentinel_mode ? "Sentinel" : "Redis");
     return C_OK;