diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd-pre-exec b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd-pre-exec
index 827f7d13fc..2d5e51de39 100755
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd-pre-exec
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd-pre-exec
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ if [ -d /media/state/etcd ]; then
   chown -R etcd:etcd ${STATE}
 fi
 
-mkdir /var/run/etcd
+mkdir -p /var/run/etcd
 chown etcd:etcd /var/run/etcd