diff --git a/src/Hydra/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm b/src/Hydra/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
index 3b928803..a6dcaa65 100644
--- a/src/Hydra/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
+++ b/src/Hydra/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ sub isValidPath {
 
 
 sub getHydraPath {
-    my $dir = $ENV{HYDRA_DATA};
+    my $dir = $ENV{"HYDRA_DATA"};
     die "The HYDRA_DATA environment variable is not set!\n" unless defined $dir;
     die "The HYDRA_DATA directory does not exist!\n" unless -d $dir;
     return $dir;
diff --git a/src/Hydra/script/hydra_init.pl b/src/Hydra/script/hydra_init.pl
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..0676b8b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Hydra/script/hydra_init.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
+
+use strict;
+use Hydra::Helper::Nix;
+
+my $hydraHome = $ENV{"HYDRA_HOME"};
+die "The HYDRA_HOME environment variable is not set!\n" unless defined $hydraHome;
+
+my $hydraData = $ENV{"HYDRA_DATA"};
+mkdir $hydraData unless -d $hydraData;
+
+my $dbPath = getHydraPath . "/hydra.sqlite";
+
+system("sqlite3 $dbPath < $hydraHome/sql/hydra.sql") == 0
+    or warn "Cannot initialise database in $dbPath";
diff --git a/src/hydra.sql b/src/Hydra/sql/hydra.sql
similarity index 99%
rename from src/hydra.sql
rename to src/Hydra/sql/hydra.sql
index 31962321..94e23a24 100644
--- a/src/hydra.sql
+++ b/src/Hydra/sql/hydra.sql
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ create table Projects (
     name          text primary key not null, -- project id, lowercase (e.g. "patchelf")
     displayName   text not null, -- display name (e.g. "PatchELF")
     description   text,
-    enabled       integer not null default 1
+    enabled       integer not null default 1,
     owner         text not null,
     foreign key   (owner) references Users(userName) -- ignored by sqlite
 );