diff --git a/ceph/templates/daemonset.yaml b/ceph/templates/daemonset.yaml
index 9e0e554cfd..6c350cbe05 100644
--- a/ceph/templates/daemonset.yaml
+++ b/ceph/templates/daemonset.yaml
@@ -20,9 +20,8 @@ spec:
           hostPath:
             path: /dev
         - name: ceph
-          emptyDir: {}
-#          hostPath:
-#            path: /opt/ceph
+          hostPath:
+            path: {{ .Values.storage.var_directory }}
         - name: ceph-conf
           secret:
             secretName: ceph-conf-combined
@@ -36,9 +35,8 @@ spec:
           secret:
             secretName: ceph-bootstrap-rgw-keyring
         - name: osd-directory
-          emptyDir: {}
-#          hostPath:
-#            path: /home/core/data/ceph/osd
+          hostPath:
+            path: {{ .Values.storage.osd_directory }}
       containers:
         - name: osd-pod
           image: {{ .Values.images.daemon }}
diff --git a/ceph/values.yaml b/ceph/values.yaml
index c90d197c8d..550536cdb3 100644
--- a/ceph/values.yaml
+++ b/ceph/values.yaml
@@ -20,3 +20,7 @@ network:
     mon: 6789
     rgw_ingress: 80
     rgw_target: 8088
+
+storage:
+  osd_directory: /var/lib/aic-helm/ceph/osd
+  var_directory: /var/lib/aic-helm/ceph/ceph
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/common/.gitignore b/common/.gitignore
index d1f0fc1755..e1bd7e85af 100644
--- a/common/.gitignore
+++ b/common/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 secrets/*
+!secrets/.gitkeep 
 templates/_secrets.tpl
diff --git a/common/secrets/.gitkeep b/common/secrets/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/mariadb/templates/mariadb-deployment.yaml b/mariadb/templates/mariadb-deployment.yaml
index 43722189ff..c3f6887941 100644
--- a/mariadb/templates/mariadb-deployment.yaml
+++ b/mariadb/templates/mariadb-deployment.yaml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ apiVersion: v1
 metadata:
   name: mariadb-{{$v}}
   annotations:
-    volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-class: "general"  
+    {{ $root.Values.volume.class_path }}: {{ $root.Values.volume.class_name }}  
 spec:
   accessModes: [ "ReadWriteOnce" ]
   resources:
diff --git a/mariadb/values.yaml b/mariadb/values.yaml
index 8d87d7ee68..5f7ee60091 100644
--- a/mariadb/values.yaml
+++ b/mariadb/values.yaml
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ images:
   mariadb: quay.io/stackanetes/stackanetes-mariadb:newton
 
 volume:
+  class_path: volume.alpha.kubernetes.io/storage-class
+  class_name: general
   size: 20Gi
 
 labels: