diff --git a/mrtg/files/tmpfiles.conf b/mrtg/files/tmpfiles.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..432167d5c0c9a0bd5b1f5894890f689fc72317ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mrtg/files/tmpfiles.conf
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+d /run/lock/mrtg 0755 mrtg mrtg - -
diff --git a/mrtg/handlers/main.yml b/mrtg/handlers/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9527d2d9597e56cafb6b6691d6ca5626246c4c10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mrtg/handlers/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+# file: shared-roles/network/mrtg/handlers/main.yml
+
+- name: create tmpfiles
+  shell: systemd-tmpfiles --create
diff --git a/mrtg/tasks/main.yml b/mrtg/tasks/main.yml
index 90d06fe0a3b90010a8c1377ee3f85fb5cf0ab188..6c828b377b344dacbc2ac78fb56fd132f897eeb4 100644
--- a/mrtg/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/mrtg/tasks/main.yml
@@ -27,6 +27,17 @@
   file: path=/etc/mrtg.cfg group=mrtg
   tags: mrtg
 
+- name: ensure the mrtg user can get the lock
+  copy:
+    src: tmpfiles.conf
+    dest: /etc/tmpfiles.d/10-mrtg.conf
+    owner: root
+    group: root
+    mode: 0644
+  notify:
+    - create tmpfiles
+  tags: mrtg
+
 - name: create an index HTML page
   command: "indexmaker --output /var/www/mrtg/index.html --title='Traffic of {{domain}}' --columns=3 --pagetop='{% for switch in mrtg_switches %}<a href=\"index-{{switch['router']}}.html\"><b>{{switch['router']}}</b>.{{domain}}</a> {% endfor %} {% if use_weathermap %}<a href=\"weathermap.png\">Weathermap</a>{%endif %}' /etc/mrtg.cfg"
   become: yes
diff --git a/mrtg/tasks/weathermap.yml b/mrtg/tasks/weathermap.yml
index 8c687e575be589281df6daaaeeb2f599b98c62fd..014fca39d7b8a6a613b329fe0e364a3a54ea17b5 100644
--- a/mrtg/tasks/weathermap.yml
+++ b/mrtg/tasks/weathermap.yml
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@
     dest: /opt/
   tags: weathermap
 
+- name: silence the weathermap rrdtool warning
+  lineinfile:
+    path: /opt/weathermap/weathermap
+    regexp: '\$rrdtool=\"[^"]*\";'
+    line: '$rrdtool="/usr/sbin/nologin";'
+  tags: weathermap
+
 - name: create the weathermap config
   script: "makeweather.py {{weathermap_placement_strategy}}"
   tags: weathermap