diff --git a/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/collector_test.go b/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/collector_test.go
index 8899fb550bf33a..c1163f9d3f4c83 100644
--- a/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/collector_test.go
+++ b/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/collector_test.go
@@ -53,19 +53,19 @@ func TestCollector_Init(t *testing.T) {
 			wantFail: false,
 			config:   New().Config,
 		},
-		"fail when URL not set": {
-			wantFail: true,
+		"success when URL has no wantMetrics suffix": {
+			wantFail: false,
 			config: Config{
 				HTTPConfig: web.HTTPConfig{
-					RequestConfig: web.RequestConfig{URL: ""},
+					RequestConfig: web.RequestConfig{URL: "http://127.0.0.1:38001"},
 				},
 			},
 		},
-		"fail when URL has no wantMetrics suffix": {
+		"fail when URL not set": {
 			wantFail: true,
 			config: Config{
 				HTTPConfig: web.HTTPConfig{
-					RequestConfig: web.RequestConfig{URL: "http://127.0.0.1:38001"},
+					RequestConfig: web.RequestConfig{URL: ""},
 				},
 			},
 		},
diff --git a/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/init.go b/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/init.go
index d27947d5895ee0..4c1ceec1f5e975 100644
--- a/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/init.go
+++ b/src/go/plugin/go.d/collector/apache/init.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ func (c *Collector) validateConfig() error {
 		return errors.New("url not set")
 	}
 	if !strings.HasSuffix(c.URL, "?auto") {
-		return errors.New("invalid URL, should ends in '?auto'")
+		c.Warningf("missing '?auto' parameter - needed for machine-readable output")
 	}
 	return nil
 }