diff --git a/etc/vmail.conf b/etc/vmail.conf
index 1537ff6..a2a98a8 100644
--- a/etc/vmail.conf
+++ b/etc/vmail.conf
@@ -6,9 +6,8 @@ if [ "$USER" != "vmail" ]; then
 fi
 
 # constants
-readonly MYSQL_CONNECTION_INFO_FILE=/usr/local/etc/vmail-db-info.conf
 readonly VMAIL_DIR=/var/vmail
-readonly VMAIL_DB=vmail
+readonly MYSQL_CONNECTION_INFO_FILE=$VMAIL_DIR/.my.cnf
 
 # check that MYSQL_CONNECTION_INFO_FILE exists and is readable
 if [ ! -f "$MYSQL_CONNECTION_INFO_FILE" ]; then
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index ae023b4..3604923 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -77,6 +77,15 @@ apt -y install exim4-daemon-heavy spf-tools-perl spamassassin libclass-dbi-mysql
 usermod -a -G ssl-cert Debian-exim
 useradd --create-home --home-dir /var/vmail --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --system --user-group vmail
 
+# configure vmail user .my.cnf for db access
+install --owner=vmail --group=vmail --mode=640 /dev/null /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "[client]" > /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "host     = localhost" >> /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "database = vmail" >> /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "user     = vmail" >> /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "password = $VMAILPASS" >> /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+echo "socket   = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock" >> /var/vmail/.my.cnf
+
 # configure vmail dirs
 chmod 750 /var/vmail/
 if [ ! -d "/etc/ssl/dkim" ]; then