diff --git a/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.java b/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.java
index b533fa3c02f6a..c7e1531521d17 100644
--- a/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.java
+++ b/pulsar-broker/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.java
@@ -115,6 +115,15 @@ private static class Arguments {
                 description = "The metadata service URI of the existing BookKeeper cluster that you want to use")
         private String existingBkMetadataServiceUri;
 
+        // Hide and marked as deprecated this flag because we use the new name '--existing-bk-metadata-service-uri' to
+        // pass the service url. For compatibility of the command, we should keep both to avoid the exceptions.
+        @Deprecated
+        @Parameter(names = {
+            "--bookkeeper-metadata-service-uri"},
+            description = "The metadata service URI of the existing BookKeeper cluster that you want to use",
+            hidden = true)
+        private String bookieMetadataServiceUri;
+
         @Parameter(names = { "-h", "--help" }, description = "Show this help message")
         private boolean help = false;
     }
@@ -178,19 +187,23 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 
         // Format BookKeeper ledger storage metadata
         ServerConfiguration bkConf = new ServerConfiguration();
-        if (arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri == null) {
+        if (arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri == null && arguments.bookieMetadataServiceUri == null) {
             bkConf.setZkServers(arguments.zookeeper);
             bkConf.setZkTimeout(arguments.zkSessionTimeoutMillis);
             if (localZk.exists("/ledgers", false) == null // only format if /ledgers doesn't exist
-                    && !BookKeeperAdmin.format(bkConf, false /* interactive */, false /* force */)) {
+                && !BookKeeperAdmin.format(bkConf, false /* interactive */, false /* force */)) {
                 throw new IOException("Failed to initialize BookKeeper metadata");
             }
         }
 
         // Format BookKeeper stream storage metadata
         if (arguments.numStreamStorageContainers > 0) {
-            String uriStr = arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri == null
-                    ? bkConf.getMetadataServiceUri() : arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri;
+            String uriStr = bkConf.getMetadataServiceUri();
+            if (arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri != null) {
+                uriStr = arguments.existingBkMetadataServiceUri;
+            } else if (arguments.bookieMetadataServiceUri != null) {
+                uriStr = arguments.bookieMetadataServiceUri;
+            }
             ServiceURI bkMetadataServiceUri = ServiceURI.create(uriStr);
             ClusterInitializer initializer = new ZkClusterInitializer(arguments.zookeeper);
             initializer.initializeCluster(bkMetadataServiceUri.getUri(), arguments.numStreamStorageContainers);
diff --git a/pulsar-broker/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/zookeeper/ClusterMetadataSetupTest.java b/pulsar-broker/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/zookeeper/ClusterMetadataSetupTest.java
index 8c2c00791ea80..163dc6bf60c2f 100644
--- a/pulsar-broker/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/zookeeper/ClusterMetadataSetupTest.java
+++ b/pulsar-broker/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/zookeeper/ClusterMetadataSetupTest.java
@@ -68,6 +68,22 @@ public void testSetupWithBkMetadataServiceUri() throws Exception {
         // expected not exist
         assertNull(localZk.exists("/ledgers", false));
 
+        String[] bookkeeperMetadataServiceUriArgs = {
+            "--cluster", "testReSetupClusterMetadata-cluster",
+            "--zookeeper", zkConnection,
+            "--configuration-store", zkConnection,
+            "--bookkeeper-metadata-service-uri", "zk+null://" + zkConnection + "/chroot/ledgers",
+            "--web-service-url", "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
+            "--web-service-url-tls", "https://127.0.0.1:8443",
+            "--broker-service-url", "pulsar://127.0.0.1:6650",
+            "--broker-service-url-tls","pulsar+ssl://127.0.0.1:6651"
+        };
+
+        PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.main(bookkeeperMetadataServiceUriArgs);
+        ZooKeeper bookkeeperMetadataServiceUriZk = PulsarClusterMetadataSetup.initZk(zkConnection, 30000);
+        // expected not exist
+        assertNull(bookkeeperMetadataServiceUriZk.exists("/ledgers", false));
+
         String[] args1 = {
                 "--cluster", "testReSetupClusterMetadata-cluster",
                 "--zookeeper", zkConnection,