diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ov/ovn/generic.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ov/ovn/generic.nix
index a584a9ce15f3..c3dbb8f145d9 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ov/ovn/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ov/ovn/generic.nix
@@ -58,6 +58,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     popd
   '';
 
+  configureFlags = [
+    "--localstatedir=/var"
+  ];
+
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
   # disable tests due to networking issues and because individual tests can't be skipped easily