diff --git a/debian/postinst b/debian/postinst
index 1443310614..4c80c359f7 100755
--- a/debian/postinst
+++ b/debian/postinst
@@ -137,7 +137,6 @@ case "$1" in
     ln -sf ${gitlab_data_dir}/Gemfile.lock ${gitlab_app_root}/Gemfile.lock
     
     if ! [ -e ${gitlab_app_root}/.secret ] ; then
-      su ${gitlab_user} -s /bin/sh -c "touch ${gitlab_data_dir}/.secret"
       ln -s ${gitlab_data_dir}/.secret ${gitlab_app_root}/.secret
     fi
 
diff --git a/debian/rake-tasks.sh b/debian/rake-tasks.sh
index 156db7e075..b6e2572749 100755
--- a/debian/rake-tasks.sh
+++ b/debian/rake-tasks.sh
@@ -5,9 +5,17 @@ export $(cat /etc/gitlab/gitlab-debian.conf)
 
 if ! [ -f "${gitlab_app_root}/config/secrets.yml" ]; then
   echo "Creating secrets.yml..."
-  gitlab_app_secret=$(openssl rand -hex 64)
+  # Check if .secret file exist already in gitlab_app_root
+  # See if it is an empty file
+  test -e ${gitlab_app_root}/.secret &&\
+  gitlab_app_secret=$(cat ${gitlab_app_root}/.secret);\
+  test -n "${gitlab_app_secret}" ||\
+  { gitlab_app_secret=$(openssl rand -hex 64)
+
   cp ${gitlab_app_root}/config/secrets.yml.example ${gitlab_app_root}/config/secrets.yml
   sed -i "s/# db_key_base:/db_key_base: ${gitlab_app_secret}/" ${gitlab_app_root}/config/secrets.yml
+  echo ${gitlab_app_root} > ${gitlab_app_root}/.secret
+  }
 fi
 echo "Initializing database..."
 if [ "$(su postgres -c 'psql gitlab_production -c \\d')" = \