diff --git a/src/core_plugins/kibana/index.js b/src/core_plugins/kibana/index.js
index eaf49dcbbe3d6..516e8ce5e3d70 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/kibana/index.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/kibana/index.js
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import Promise from 'bluebird';
+import { mkdirp as mkdirpNode } from 'mkdirp';
 import manageUuid from './server/lib/manage_uuid';
 import ingest from './server/routes/api/ingest';
 import search from './server/routes/api/search';
@@ -5,6 +7,8 @@ import settings from './server/routes/api/settings';
 import scripts from './server/routes/api/scripts';
 import * as systemApi from './server/lib/system_api';
 
+const mkdirp = Promise.promisify(mkdirpNode);
+
 module.exports = function (kibana) {
   const kbnBaseUrl = '/app/kibana';
   return new kibana.Plugin({
@@ -85,6 +89,18 @@ module.exports = function (kibana) {
       },
     },
 
+    preInit: async function (server) {
+      try {
+        // Create the data directory (recursively, if the a parent dir doesn't exist).
+        // If it already exists, does nothing.
+        await mkdirp(server.config().get('path.data'));
+      } catch (err) {
+        server.log(['error', 'init'], err);
+        // Stop the server startup with a fatal error
+        throw err;
+      }
+    },
+
     init: function (server, options) {
       // uuid
       manageUuid(server);
diff --git a/src/core_plugins/kibana/server/lib/manage_uuid.js b/src/core_plugins/kibana/server/lib/manage_uuid.js
index b6c13550f92f5..aad9cd3431914 100644
--- a/src/core_plugins/kibana/server/lib/manage_uuid.js
+++ b/src/core_plugins/kibana/server/lib/manage_uuid.js
@@ -7,9 +7,7 @@ const FILE_ENCODING = 'utf8';
 
 export default async function manageUuid(server) {
   const config = server.config();
-  const serverPort = server.info.port;
-  const serverHostname = config.get('server.host');
-  const fileName = `${serverHostname}:${serverPort}`;
+  const fileName = 'uuid';
   const uuidFile = pathJoin(config.get('path.data'), fileName);
 
   async function detectUuid() {
@@ -17,8 +15,14 @@ export default async function manageUuid(server) {
     try {
       const result = await readFile(uuidFile);
       return result.toString(FILE_ENCODING);
-    } catch (e) {
-      return false;
+    } catch (err) {
+      if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
+        // non-existant uuid file is ok
+        return false;
+      }
+      server.log(['error', 'read-uuid'], err);
+      // Note: this will most likely be logged as an Unhandled Rejection
+      throw err;
     }
   }
 
@@ -26,8 +30,10 @@ export default async function manageUuid(server) {
     const writeFile = Promise.promisify(writeFileCallback);
     try {
       return await writeFile(uuidFile, uuid, { encoding: FILE_ENCODING });
-    } catch (e) {
-      return false;
+    } catch (err) {
+      server.log(['error', 'write-uuid'], err);
+      // Note: this will most likely be logged as an Unhandled Rejection
+      throw err;
     }
   }