diff --git a/serving/build.gradle b/serving/build.gradle
index 6e599c19108..1d79dabae55 100644
--- a/serving/build.gradle
+++ b/serving/build.gradle
@@ -52,7 +52,10 @@ startScripts {
     defaultJvmOpts = []
     doLast {
         String text = unixScript.text.replace('exec "$JAVACMD" "$@"', 'exec env OMP_NUM_THREADS="1" MXNET_ENGINE_TYPE="NaiveEngine" TF_CPP_MIN_LOG_LEVEL=1 TF_NUM_INTRAOP_THREADS=1 "$JAVACMD" "$@"')
-        text = text.replace('DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS=""', 'DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS="-DMODEL_SERVER_HOME=${APP_HOME} -Dlog4j.configurationFile=${APP_HOME}/conf/log4j2.xml"')
+        text = text.replace('DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS=""', 'if [[ "${MODEL_SERVER_HOME}" = "" ]] ; then\n' +
+                '    export MODEL_SERVER_HOME=${APP_HOME}\n' +
+                'fi\n' +
+                'DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS="-Dlog4j.configurationFile=${APP_HOME}/conf/log4j2.xml"\n')
         unixScript.text = text
     }
 }
diff --git a/serving/src/main/conf/log4j2.xml b/serving/src/main/conf/log4j2.xml
index 7b430e3b511..0e9dbe0600f 100644
--- a/serving/src/main/conf/log4j2.xml
+++ b/serving/src/main/conf/log4j2.xml
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
         </Console>
         <RollingFile
                 name="rollingFile"
-                fileName="${sys:MODEL_SERVER_HOME}/logs/serving.log"
-                filePattern="${sys:MODEL_SERVER_HOME}/logs/serving.%d{dd-MMM}.log.gz"
+                fileName="${env:MODEL_SERVER_HOME}/logs/serving.log"
+                filePattern="${env:MODEL_SERVER_HOME}/logs/serving.%d{dd-MMM}.log.gz"
                 ignoreExceptions="false">
             <PatternLayout>
                 <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %m%n</Pattern>