diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 93821ad1c..72ef9e17c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 !/var/cache
 /var/cache/*
 !var/cache/.gitkeep
+!/var/data
 !/var/logs
 /var/logs/*
 !var/logs/.gitkeep
diff --git a/app/config/config_test.yml b/app/config/config_test.yml
index 3b1b04348..b5ea6f201 100644
--- a/app/config/config_test.yml
+++ b/app/config/config_test.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ web_profiler:
 # In this case we just need to define a different path for the application database.
 doctrine:
     dbal:
-        path: "%kernel.root_dir%/data/blog_test.sqlite"
+        path: "%kernel.root_dir%/../var/data/blog_test.sqlite"
 
 # this configuration simplifies testing URLs protected by the security mechanism
 # See http://symfony.com/doc/current/cookbook/testing/http_authentication.html
diff --git a/app/config/parameters.yml.dist b/app/config/parameters.yml.dist
index e952e5ebe..4cc6ec1e3 100644
--- a/app/config/parameters.yml.dist
+++ b/app/config/parameters.yml.dist
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ parameters:
     # this demo application uses an embedded SQLite database to simplify setup.
     # in a real Symfony application you probably will use a MySQL or PostgreSQL database
     # the path must be relative or else it will not work on Windows
-    env(DATABASE_URL): 'sqlite:///%kernel.root_dir%/data/blog.sqlite'
+    env(DATABASE_URL): 'sqlite:///%kernel.root_dir%/../var/data/blog.sqlite'
 
     # Uncomment this line to use a MySQL database instead of SQLite (and remove
     # the "doctrine" section from config_dev.yml regarding SQLite):
diff --git a/app/data/blog.sqlite b/var/data/blog.sqlite
similarity index 100%
rename from app/data/blog.sqlite
rename to var/data/blog.sqlite
diff --git a/app/data/blog_test.sqlite b/var/data/blog_test.sqlite
similarity index 100%
rename from app/data/blog_test.sqlite
rename to var/data/blog_test.sqlite