diff --git a/src/rdb.c b/src/rdb.c
index 60dd7113e..1a472dbc7 100644
--- a/src/rdb.c
+++ b/src/rdb.c
@@ -1065,6 +1065,10 @@ void rdbLoadProgressCallback(rio *r, const void *buf, size_t len) {
     if (server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes &&
         (r->processed_bytes + len)/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes > r->processed_bytes/server.loading_process_events_interval_bytes)
     {
+        /* The DB can take some non trivial amount of time to load. Update
+         * our cached time since it is used to create and update the last
+         * interaction time with clients and for other important things. */
+        updateCachedTime();
         if (server.masterhost && server.repl_state == REDIS_REPL_TRANSFER)
             replicationSendNewlineToMaster();
         loadingProgress(r->processed_bytes);
diff --git a/src/redis.c b/src/redis.c
index 1b61946e7..e50dc6072 100644
--- a/src/redis.c
+++ b/src/redis.c
@@ -1001,6 +1001,15 @@ void databasesCron(void) {
     }
 }
 
+/* We take a cached value of the unix time in the global state because with
+ * virtual memory and aging there is to store the current time in objects at
+ * every object access, and accuracy is not needed. To access a global var is
+ * a lot faster than calling time(NULL) */
+void updateCachedTime(void) {
+    server.unixtime = time(NULL);
+    server.mstime = mstime();
+}
+
 /* This is our timer interrupt, called server.hz times per second.
  * Here is where we do a number of things that need to be done asynchronously.
  * For instance:
@@ -1030,12 +1039,8 @@ int serverCron(struct aeEventLoop *eventLoop, long long id, void *clientData) {
      * handler if we don't return here fast enough. */
     if (server.watchdog_period) watchdogScheduleSignal(server.watchdog_period);
 
-    /* We take a cached value of the unix time in the global state because
-     * with virtual memory and aging there is to store the current time
-     * in objects at every object access, and accuracy is not needed.
-     * To access a global var is faster than calling time(NULL) */
-    server.unixtime = time(NULL);
-    server.mstime = mstime();
+    /* Update the time cache. */
+    updateCachedTime();
 
     run_with_period(100) trackOperationsPerSecond();
 
@@ -1676,12 +1681,11 @@ void initServer() {
     server.ops_sec_idx = 0;
     server.ops_sec_last_sample_time = mstime();
     server.ops_sec_last_sample_ops = 0;
-    server.unixtime = time(NULL);
-    server.mstime = mstime();
     server.lastbgsave_status = REDIS_OK;
     server.aof_last_write_status = REDIS_OK;
     server.aof_last_write_errno = 0;
     server.repl_good_slaves_count = 0;
+    updateCachedTime();
 
     /* Create the serverCron() time event, that's our main way to process
      * background operations. */
diff --git a/src/redis.h b/src/redis.h
index d7a9eea0a..618dfac43 100644
--- a/src/redis.h
+++ b/src/redis.h
@@ -1154,6 +1154,7 @@ void populateCommandTable(void);
 void resetCommandTableStats(void);
 void adjustOpenFilesLimit(void);
 void closeListeningSockets(int unlink_unix_socket);
+void updateCachedTime();
 
 /* Set data type */
 robj *setTypeCreate(robj *value);