diff --git a/roles/mysql/handlers/main.yml b/roles/mysql/handlers/main.yml
index a934d6955d71ee34415abe3d39d478e296518a3f..a40308453a8ae5304a4fbec76d990cd1b56a1ffa 100644
--- a/roles/mysql/handlers/main.yml
+++ b/roles/mysql/handlers/main.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 ---
-- name: "Restart MySQL" 
+- name: "Restart MySQL"
   service: name={{ sqlServiceName }} state=restarted
   become: true
diff --git a/roles/mysql/tasks/mysql_server.yml b/roles/mysql/tasks/mysql_server.yml
index f8edd4e66ceed4323aa0ad83364ec890b93e80c1..63d528e8499cedff90500d4fc715dffdf26befc2 100644
--- a/roles/mysql/tasks/mysql_server.yml
+++ b/roles/mysql/tasks/mysql_server.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   with_items: "{{ server_packages }}"
   become: true
   when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat"
-  
+
 - name: make sure mysql conf directory exists
   file: dest=/etc/mysql/conf.d state=directory
   become: true
@@ -29,12 +29,18 @@
 #    - ::1
 #    - localhost
 
-- name: update mysql root password for all root accounts  # this will only work if a completely fresh db gets installed because it gets shipped with a blank root pw
+- name: Check that the slurm_acct_db_directory exists
+  stat:
+    path: /var/lib/mysql/slurm_acct_db/   #defined in /vars/filesystems.yaml
+  register: slurm_acct_db_directory_result
+
+# this will only work if a completely fresh db gets installed because it gets shipped with a blank root pw
+- name: update mysql root password for all root accounts
   mysql_user: name=root host=localhost password={{ mysql_root_password }} login_user=root
-  when: mysqldb_confdir_create.changed
-  
+  when: not slurm_acct_db_directory_result.stat.exists and mysqldb_confdir_create.changed
+
 - name: "Adding user database"
-  mysql_db: name={{ mysql_user_db_name }} state=present login_user=root login_password={{ mysql_root_password }} 
+  mysql_db: name={{ mysql_user_db_name }} state=present login_user=root login_password={{ mysql_root_password }}
 
 - name: "Giving priviliges to user"
   mysql_user: name={{ mysql_user_name }} host={{ mysql_user_host }} password={{ mysql_user_password }} login_user=root login_password={{ mysql_root_password }} priv={{ mysql_user_db_name }}.*:ALL,GRANT state=present