diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 8420a500f1faa9160719bb0c415834a65570ead5..cc99a37ccec05969f88f39acf72c2689ddc60d37 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ OpenLDAP 2.4.12 Engineering
 	Fixed slapd socket closing on Windows (ITS#5606)
 	Fixed slapd-ldap,slapd-meta invalid filter behavior (ITS#5614)
 	Fixed slapd-meta quarantine behavior (ITS#5592)
+	Fixed slapd-relay initialization (ITS#5643)
 	Fixed slapd-sql freeing of connection (ITS#5607)
 	Fixed slapo-constraint string termination (ITS#5609)
 	Fixed slapo-memberof internal operations DN (ITS#5622)
diff --git a/servers/slapd/back-relay/init.c b/servers/slapd/back-relay/init.c
index ddfca7f24cb6f9f00857900810739365373590af..0f6590b40c7c9fd0524ddbb47748a3e8e0085e55 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/back-relay/init.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/back-relay/init.c
@@ -108,10 +108,8 @@ relay_back_cf( ConfigArgs *c )
 				"of relay dn \"%s\" "
 				"in \"olcRelay <dn>\"\n",
 				c->value_dn.bv_val );
-			Log2( LDAP_DEBUG_ANY, LDAP_LEVEL_ERR,
+			Log2( LDAP_DEBUG_CONFIG, LDAP_LEVEL_ERR,
 				"%s: %s.\n", c->log, c->cr_msg );
-			rc = 1;
-			goto relay_done;
 
 		} else if ( bd->be_private == c->be->be_private ) {
 			snprintf( c->cr_msg, sizeof( c->cr_msg),
@@ -213,7 +211,17 @@ relay_back_db_open( Backend *be, ConfigReply *cr )
 		ri->ri_bd = select_backend( &ri->ri_realsuffix, 1 );
 
 		/* must be there: it was during config! */
-		assert( ri->ri_bd != NULL );
+		if ( ri->ri_bd == NULL ) {
+			snprintf( cr->msg, sizeof( cr->msg),
+				"cannot find database "
+				"of relay dn \"%s\" "
+				"in \"olcRelay <dn>\"\n",
+				ri->ri_realsuffix.bv_val );
+			Log1( LDAP_DEBUG_ANY, LDAP_LEVEL_ERR,
+				"relay_back_db_open: %s.\n", cr->msg );
+
+			return 1;
+		}
 
 		/* inherit controls */
 		AC_MEMCPY( be->be_ctrls, ri->ri_bd->be_ctrls, sizeof( be->be_ctrls ) );