Hot Rod server fails to start due to NPE in PersistenceManagerImpl.preload()

2016-05-19 19:31:21,976 ERROR [org.jboss.as.controller.management-operation] (Controller Boot Thread) WFLYCTL0013: Operation ("add") failed - address: ([
    ("subsystem" => "datagrid-infinispan-endpoint"),
    ("hotrod-connector" => "hotrod-connector")
]) - failure description: {"WFLYCTL0080: Failed services" => {"jboss.datagrid-infinispan-endpoint.hotrod.hotrod-connector" => "org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.datagrid-infinispan-endpoint.hotrod.hotrod-connector: DGENDPT10004: Failed to start HotRodServer
    Caused by: org.infinispan.commons.CacheException: Unable to invoke method public void org.infinispan.persistence.manager.PersistenceManagerImpl.preload() on object of type PersistenceManagerImpl
    Caused by: org.infinispan.persistence.spi.PersistenceException: Execution exception!
    Caused by: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.infinispan.persistence.spi.PersistenceException: Unable to preload!
    Caused by: org.infinispan.persistence.spi.PersistenceException: Unable to preload!
    Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException"}}
2016-05-19 19:31:22,037 INFO  [org.jboss.as.controller] (Controller Boot Thread) WFLYCTL0183: Service status report
WFLYCTL0186:   Services which failed to start:      service jboss.datagrid-infinispan-endpoint.hotrod.hotrod-connector: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.datagrid-infinispan-endpoint.hotrod.hotrod-connector: DGENDPT10004: Failed to start HotRodServer