diff --git a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/ConfigAccessor.java b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/ConfigAccessor.java
index d754e992f38c..53a6fb855838 100644
--- a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/ConfigAccessor.java
+++ b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/ConfigAccessor.java
@@ -41,4 +41,8 @@ public static NetworkConfig getActiveMemberNetworkConfig(Config config) {
     public static ServicesConfig getServicesConfig(Config config) {
         return config.getServicesConfig();
     }
+
+    public static boolean isInstanceTrackingEnabledSet(Config config) {
+        return config.getInstanceTrackingConfig().isEnabledSet;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/InstanceTrackingConfig.java b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/InstanceTrackingConfig.java
index 4b576964a029..d1fcdf720397 100644
--- a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/InstanceTrackingConfig.java
+++ b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/config/InstanceTrackingConfig.java
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
 
 package com.hazelcast.config;
 
+import com.hazelcast.internal.util.EmptyStatement;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.Objects;
@@ -41,16 +45,24 @@ public class InstanceTrackingConfig {
      */
     public static final Path DEFAULT_FILE = Paths.get(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"), "Hazelcast.process");
 
+    /**
+     * Default setting whether instance tracking should be enabled or not.
+     * It depends on whether the instance is an OEM/NLC build or not.
+     */
+    public static final boolean DEFAULT_ENABLED = isOEMBuild();
+
     /**
      * Namespace for the placeholders in the file name and format pattern to
      * distinguish between different types of placeholders.
      */
     public static final String PLACEHOLDER_NAMESPACE = "HZ_INSTANCE_TRACKING";
 
-    private boolean enabled;
+    private boolean enabled = DEFAULT_ENABLED;
     private String fileName;
     private String formatPattern;
 
+    boolean isEnabledSet;
+
     public InstanceTrackingConfig() {
         super();
     }
@@ -76,6 +88,7 @@ public boolean isEnabled() {
      */
     public InstanceTrackingConfig setEnabled(boolean enabled) {
         this.enabled = enabled;
+        this.isEnabledSet = true;
         return this;
     }
 
@@ -311,4 +324,21 @@ public String getModeName() {
             return modeName;
         }
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns whether this build is an OEM/NLC build or not.
+     */
+    private static boolean isOEMBuild() {
+        try {
+            Class<?> helper = Class.forName("com.hazelcast.license.util.LicenseHelper");
+            Method getLicense = helper.getMethod("getBuiltInLicense");
+            // enabled for OEM/NLC build
+            return getLicense.invoke(null) != null;
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException | NoSuchMethodException
+                | IllegalAccessException | InvocationTargetException e) {
+            // running OS, instance tracking is disabled by default
+            EmptyStatement.ignore(e);
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/internal/config/AbstractDomConfigProcessor.java b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/internal/config/AbstractDomConfigProcessor.java
index 31a8622cb5fa..f14e93193b13 100644
--- a/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/internal/config/AbstractDomConfigProcessor.java
+++ b/hazelcast/src/main/java/com/hazelcast/internal/config/AbstractDomConfigProcessor.java
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 import static com.hazelcast.internal.config.DomConfigHelper.cleanNodeName;
 import static com.hazelcast.internal.config.DomConfigHelper.getBooleanValue;
 import static com.hazelcast.internal.config.DomConfigHelper.getIntegerValue;
+import static com.hazelcast.internal.util.StringUtil.isNullOrEmptyAfterTrim;
 import static com.hazelcast.internal.util.StringUtil.upperCaseInternal;
 
 /**
@@ -404,8 +405,10 @@ protected LoginModuleConfig handleLoginModule(Node node) {
 
     protected void handleInstanceTracking(Node node, InstanceTrackingConfig trackingConfig) {
         Node attrEnabled = getNamedItemNode(node, "enabled");
-        boolean enabled = getBooleanValue(getTextContent(attrEnabled));
-        trackingConfig.setEnabled(enabled);
+        String textContent = getTextContent(attrEnabled);
+        if (!isNullOrEmptyAfterTrim(textContent)) {
+            trackingConfig.setEnabled(getBooleanValue(textContent));
+        }
 
         for (Node n : childElements(node)) {
             final String name = cleanNodeName(n);
diff --git a/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.xml b/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.xml
index e6812a5a169f..8ee9fb094b2c 100644
--- a/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.xml
+++ b/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.xml
@@ -329,10 +329,6 @@
         <collection-frequency-seconds>5</collection-frequency-seconds>
     </metrics>
 
-    <instance-tracking enabled="false">
-
-    </instance-tracking>
-
     <sql>
         <executor-pool-size>-1</executor-pool-size>
         <statement-timeout-millis>0</statement-timeout-millis>
diff --git a/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.yaml b/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.yaml
index f3b6ad08b32e..a7ac3a054b1f 100644
--- a/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.yaml
+++ b/hazelcast/src/main/resources/hazelcast-default.yaml
@@ -331,9 +331,6 @@ hazelcast:
       enabled: true
     collection-frequency-seconds: 5
 
-  instance-tracking:
-    enabled: false
-
   sql:
     executor-pool-size: -1
     statement-timeout-millis: 0