diff --git a/vault/identity_store_util.go b/vault/identity_store_util.go
index 0426f53e6ce5f..668fabd5a4bec 100644
--- a/vault/identity_store_util.go
+++ b/vault/identity_store_util.go
@@ -923,16 +923,10 @@ func (i *IdentityStore) sanitizeAndUpsertGroup(group *identity.Group, memberGrou
 	// Sanitize the group alias
 	if group.Alias != nil {
 		group.Alias.CanonicalID = group.ID
-
 		err = i.sanitizeAlias(group.Alias)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-
-		err = i.MemDBUpsertAliasInTxn(txn, group.Alias, true)
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
 	}
 
 	err = i.UpsertGroupInTxn(txn, group, true)
@@ -1092,6 +1086,12 @@ func (i *IdentityStore) UpsertGroupInTxn(txn *memdb.Txn, group *identity.Group,
 	// Increment the modify index of the group
 	group.ModifyIndex++
 
+	if group.Alias != nil {
+		err = i.MemDBUpsertAliasInTxn(txn, group.Alias, true)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
 	// Insert or update group in MemDB using the transaction created above
 	err = i.MemDBUpsertGroupInTxn(txn, group)
 	if err != nil {