diff --git a/control/control.go b/control/control.go
index da07ad9cf..906f253fe 100644
--- a/control/control.go
+++ b/control/control.go
@@ -422,12 +422,17 @@ func (p *pluginControl) validateMetricTypeSubscription(mt core.RequestedMetric,
 
 	m.config = cd
 
-	// merge global plugin config
 	typ, perr := core.ToPluginType(m.Plugin.TypeName())
 	if perr != nil {
 		return nil, []perror.PulseError{perror.New(err)}
 	}
-	m.config.Merge(p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(typ, m.Plugin.Name(), m.Plugin.Version()))
+
+	// merge global plugin config
+	if m.config != nil {
+		m.config.Merge(p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(typ, m.Plugin.Name(), m.Plugin.Version()))
+	} else {
+		m.config = p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(typ, m.Plugin.Name(), m.Plugin.Version())
+	}
 
 	// When a metric is added to the MetricCatalog, the policy of rules defined by the plugin is added to the metric's policy.
 	// If no rules are defined for a metric, we set the metric's policy to an empty ConfigPolicyNode.
@@ -709,7 +714,9 @@ func (p *pluginControl) CollectMetrics(metricTypes []core.Metric, deadline time.
 
 			// merge global plugin config into the config for the metric
 			for _, mt := range pmt.metricTypes {
-				mt.Config().Merge(p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(core.CollectorPluginType, ap.Name(), ap.Version()))
+				if mt.Config() != nil {
+					mt.Config().Merge(p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(core.CollectorPluginType, ap.Name(), ap.Version()))
+				}
 			}
 
 			// get a metrics
@@ -823,7 +830,6 @@ func (p *pluginControl) ProcessMetrics(contentType string, content []byte, plugi
 
 		// merge global plugin config into the config for this request
 		cfg := p.Config.Plugins.getPluginConfigDataNode(core.ProcessorPluginType, ap.Name(), ap.Version()).Table()
-
 		for k, v := range config {
 			cfg[k] = v
 		}
diff --git a/control/control_test.go b/control/control_test.go
index 5e41b8a82..b00b4b1cb 100644
--- a/control/control_test.go
+++ b/control/control_test.go
@@ -713,6 +713,25 @@ func TestMetricConfig(t *testing.T) {
 			So(metric, ShouldNotBeNil)
 		})
 	})
+	Convey("nil config provided by task", t, func() {
+		config := NewConfig()
+		c := New(OptSetConfig(config))
+		c.Start()
+		lpe := newListenToPluginEvent()
+		c.eventManager.RegisterHandler("Control.PluginLoaded", lpe)
+		c.Load(JSONRPC_PluginPath)
+		<-lpe.done
+		var cd *cdata.ConfigDataNode
+		m1 := MockMetricType{
+			namespace: []string{"intel", "dummy", "foo"},
+		}
+		config.Plugins.All.AddItem("password", ctypes.ConfigValueStr{Value: "testval"})
+		metric, errs := c.validateMetricTypeSubscription(m1, cd)
+		Convey("So metric should be valid with config", func() {
+			So(errs, ShouldBeNil)
+			So(metric, ShouldNotBeNil)
+		})
+	})
 	Convey("required config provided by global plugin config", t, func() {
 		config := NewConfig()
 		c := New(OptSetConfig(config))
diff --git a/examples/influxdb-grafana/run-psutil.sh b/examples/influxdb-grafana/run-psutil.sh
index dd9a4b72f..227dc29d7 100755
--- a/examples/influxdb-grafana/run-psutil.sh
+++ b/examples/influxdb-grafana/run-psutil.sh
@@ -28,11 +28,13 @@ command -v docker-machine >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: docker-machine is requi
 command -v docker-compose >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: docker-compose is required."
 command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: docker is required."
 command -v netcat >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: netcat is required."
+file $PULSE_PATH/plugin/pulse-plugin-collector-psutil >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: missing $PULSE_PATH/build/plugin/pulse-plugin-collector-psutil"
+file $PULSE_PATH/plugin/pulse-plugin-publisher-influxdb >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "Error: missing $PULSE_PATH/build/plugin/pulse-plugin-publisher-influxdb"
 
 
 
 #docker machine ip
-dm_ip=$(docker-machine ip $1) || die 
+dm_ip=$(docker-machine ip $1) || die
 echo "docker machine ip: ${dm_ip}"
 
 #start containers
@@ -41,13 +43,13 @@ docker-compose up -d
 echo -n "waiting for influxdb and grafana to start"
 
 # wait for influxdb to start up
-while ! curl --silent -G "http://${dm_ip}:8086/query?u=admin&p=admin" --data-urlencode "q=SHOW DATABASES" 2>&1 > /dev/null ; do   
-  sleep 1 
+while ! curl --silent -G "http://${dm_ip}:8086/query?u=admin&p=admin" --data-urlencode "q=SHOW DATABASES" 2>&1 > /dev/null ; do
+  sleep 1
   echo -n "."
 done
 echo ""
 
-#influxdb IP 
+#influxdb IP
 influx_ip=$(docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' influxdbgrafana_influxdb_1)
 echo "influxdb ip: ${influx_ip}"
 
@@ -86,7 +88,7 @@ curl --cookie "$COOKIEJAR" \
 echo ""
 
 echo -n "starting pulsed"
-$PULSE_PATH/bin/pulsed --log-level 1 --auto-discover $PULSE_PATH/plugin > /tmp/pulse.out 2>&1  &
+$PULSE_PATH/bin/pulsed --log-level 1 -t 0 --auto-discover $PULSE_PATH/plugin > /tmp/pulse.out 2>&1  &
 echo ""
 
 sleep 3
@@ -94,17 +96,13 @@ sleep 3
 echo -n "adding task "
 TASK="${TMPDIR}/pulse-task-$$.json"
 echo "$TASK"
-cat $PULSE_PATH/../examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json | sed s/INFLUXDB_IP/${dm_ip}/ > $TASK 
+cat $PULSE_PATH/../examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json | sed s/INFLUXDB_IP/${dm_ip}/ > $TASK
 $PULSE_PATH/bin/pulsectl task create -t $TASK
 
-echo "start task"
-$PULSE_PATH/bin/pulsectl task start 1
-
 echo ""
 echo "Grafana Dashboard => http://${dm_ip}:3000/dashboard/db/pulse-dashboard"
 echo "Influxdb UI       => http://${dm_ip}:8083"
 echo ""
-echo "Press enter to start viewing the pulse.log" 
-read 
+echo "Press enter to start viewing the pulse.log"
+read
 tail -f /tmp/pulse.out
-
diff --git a/examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json b/examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json
index b94e654ad..c8ca177ae 100644
--- a/examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json
+++ b/examples/tasks/psutil-influx.json
@@ -6,13 +6,13 @@
     },
     "workflow": {
         "collect": {
-            "metrics": {                
-                "/psutil/load/load1": {},
-                "/psutil/load/load5": {},
-                "/psutil/load/load15": {},
-                "/psutil/vm/available": {},
-                "/psutil/vm/free": {},
-                "/psutil/vm/used": {}
+            "metrics": {
+                "/intel/psutil/load/load1": {},
+                "/intel/psutil/load/load5": {},
+                "/intel/psutil/load/load15": {},
+                "/intel/psutil/vm/available": {},
+                "/intel/psutil/vm/free": {},
+                "/intel/psutil/vm/used": {}
             },
             "config": {
                 "/intel/dummy": {
@@ -28,13 +28,13 @@
                     "publish": [
                         {
                             "plugin_name": "influx",
-                            "plugin_version": 1,
+                            "plugin_version": 4,
                             "config": {
                                 "host": "INFLUXDB_IP",
                                 "port": 8086,
                                 "database": "pulse",
                                 "user": "admin",
-                                "password": "admin"                            
+                                "password": "admin"
                             }
                         }
                     ],