diff --git a/lib/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c b/lib/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
index 8dc3a339b..65248dbcd 100644
--- a/lib/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
+++ b/lib/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
@@ -3192,14 +3192,12 @@ nvme_ctrlr_configure_aer_done(void *arg, const struct spdk_nvme_cpl *cpl)
 
 	if (spdk_nvme_cpl_is_error(cpl)) {
 		NVME_CTRLR_NOTICELOG(ctrlr, "nvme_ctrlr_configure_aer failed!\n");
-		nvme_ctrlr_set_state(ctrlr, NVME_CTRLR_STATE_SET_SUPPORTED_LOG_PAGES,
-				     ctrlr->opts.admin_timeout_ms);
-		return;
+		ctrlr->num_aers = 0;
+	} else {
+		/* aerl is a zero-based value, so we need to add 1 here. */
+		ctrlr->num_aers = spdk_min(NVME_MAX_ASYNC_EVENTS, (ctrlr->cdata.aerl + 1));
 	}
 
-	/* aerl is a zero-based value, so we need to add 1 here. */
-	ctrlr->num_aers = spdk_min(NVME_MAX_ASYNC_EVENTS, (ctrlr->cdata.aerl + 1));
-
 	for (i = 0; i < ctrlr->num_aers; i++) {
 		aer = &ctrlr->aer[i];
 		rc = nvme_ctrlr_construct_and_submit_aer(ctrlr, aer);