diff --git a/src/server.c b/src/server.c
index 15e978cd4d..37f906871c 100644
--- a/src/server.c
+++ b/src/server.c
@@ -6765,6 +6765,9 @@ void memtest(size_t megabytes, int passes);
 int checkForSentinelMode(int argc, char **argv, char *exec_name) {
     if (strstr(exec_name,"valkey-sentinel") != NULL) return 1;
 
+    /* valkey may install symlinks like redis-sentinel -> valkey-sentinel. */
+    if (strstr(exec_name, "redis-sentinel") != NULL) return 1;
+
     for (int j = 1; j < argc; j++)
         if (!strcmp(argv[j],"--sentinel")) return 1;
     return 0;