diff --git a/cluster/saltbase/salt/generate-cert/make-cert.sh b/cluster/saltbase/salt/generate-cert/make-cert.sh
index f878486bc6..36f7d9d4f0 100755
--- a/cluster/saltbase/salt/generate-cert/make-cert.sh
+++ b/cluster/saltbase/salt/generate-cert/make-cert.sh
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 cert_dir=/srv/kubernetes
 cert_file_owner=apiserver.apiserver
 
+mkdir -p "$cert_dir"
+
 openssl req -new -newkey rsa:4096 -days 365 -nodes -x509 \
   -subj "/CN=kubernetes.invalid/O=Kubernetes" \
   -keyout "${cert_dir}/server.key" -out "${cert_dir}/server.cert"