It seems that on redhat systems, only the template for grants.sql requires the existence of /etc/mysql. I've updated the mysql::server recipe to create the/etc/mysql directory if it doesn't exist. See this commit <http://github.com/apsoto/cookbooks/commit/1f6ac3dae8b666ba250f055305dae9a0973442b1> However, it's possible there is a more appropriate location for grants.sql on redhat systems. Another idea might be to put my.cnf in /etc/mysql and symlink /etc/my.cnf to /etc/mysql/my.cnf so files are grouped together.