diff --git a/data/hooks/conf_regen/06-slapd b/data/hooks/conf_regen/06-slapd
index e6a835cb0..cc861a470 100755
--- a/data/hooks/conf_regen/06-slapd
+++ b/data/hooks/conf_regen/06-slapd
@@ -46,8 +46,7 @@ do_pre_regen() {
   sudo rm -f "$tmp_backup_dir_file"
 
   # retrieve current and new backends
-  curr_backend=$(sudo slapcat -n 0 \
-                   | sed -n 's/^dn: olcDatabase={1}\(.*\),cn=config$/\1/p')
+  curr_backend=$(grep '^database' /etc/ldap/slapd.conf | awk '{print $2}')
   new_backend=$(grep '^database' slapd.conf | awk '{print $2}')
 
   # save current database before any conf changes
@@ -69,6 +68,9 @@ do_pre_regen() {
 do_post_regen() {
   regen_conf_files=$1
 
+  # ensure that slapd.d exists
+  sudo mkdir -p /etc/ldap/slapd.d
+
   # fix some permissions
   sudo chown root:openldap /etc/ldap/slapd.conf
   sudo chown -R openldap:openldap /etc/ldap/schema/