diff --git a/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/configure_persistent_config.sh b/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/configure_persistent_config.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4c7f3007810
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/configure_persistent_config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+set -e
+set -x
+
+# Create the directory where we store persistent config blobs
+mkdir -p /etc/cloudstack
+touch /etc/cloudstack/.keep
+
diff --git a/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/definition.rb b/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/definition.rb
index cb657a92ad1..f5d48504d36 100644
--- a/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/definition.rb
+++ b/tools/appliance/definitions/systemvmtemplate/definition.rb
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ config = {
         '../../cloud_scripts_shar_archive.sh',
         'configure_systemvm_services.sh',
         'authorized_keys.sh',
+        'configure_persistent_config.sh',
         # cleanup & space-saving
         'cleanup.sh',
         'zerodisk.sh'