diff --git a/libs/configuration.js b/libs/configuration.js
index 5e98b4611dd419a4de67aa50daa32b98ae62ddf0..faec8c14542e74230cc29ae0e1333d47f09b4ab4 100644
--- a/libs/configuration.js
+++ b/libs/configuration.js
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ g_configs.production = {
   port: '443',
   scheme: 'https',
   use_minified_resources: true,
-  log_path: '/home/browserid/var/',
+  var_path: '/home/browserid/var/',
   database: {
     driver: "mysql",
     user: 'browserid'
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ g_configs.local =  {
   scheme: 'http',
   email_to_console: true, // don't send email, just dump verification URLs to console.
   use_minified_resources: false,
-  log_path: path.join(__dirname, "..", "var", "logs"),
+  var_path: path.join(__dirname, "..", "var"),
   database: { driver: "json" }
 };
 
diff --git a/libs/logging.js b/libs/logging.js
index 68250d4b044f8dc556122bd6c6cc3ad4215d8aa8..deb0aa174b7d234171bcbb236489d9d7e57f60e9 100644
--- a/libs/logging.js
+++ b/libs/logging.js
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ path = require('path'),
 fs = require('fs');
 
 // go through the configuration and determine log location
-var log_path = configuration.get('log_path');
+var log_path = path.join(configuration.get('var_path'), 'log');
 
 // simple inline function for creation of dirs
 function mkdir_p(p) {
diff --git a/libs/metrics.js b/libs/metrics.js
index 8b23a3e0a8715e604c6640ce296f5938b87772f1..22e4c0330393478c5d0980a58fa88effa433185d 100644
--- a/libs/metrics.js
+++ b/libs/metrics.js
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ fs = require('fs');
 // for now we only log to one place
 // FIXME: separate logs depending on purpose?
 
-var log_path = configuration.get('log_path');
+var log_path = path.join(configuration.get('var_path'), 'log');
 var LOGGER;
 
 // simple inline function for creation of dirs