diff --git a/bin/nodetool b/bin/nodetool
index 8170e68e2..9838c7813 100755
--- a/bin/nodetool
+++ b/bin/nodetool
@@ -357,6 +357,14 @@ add_libs_dir() ->
         {error, Reason} ->
             %% rel file was been deleted by release handler
             error({failed_to_read_RELEASES_file, RelFile, Reason})
+    end,
+    PatchesDir = filename:join([RootDir, "data", "patches"]),
+    case filelib:is_dir(PatchesDir) of
+        true ->
+            true = code:add_patha(PatchesDir),
+            ok;
+        false ->
+            ok
     end.
 
 add_lib_dir(RootDir, Name, Vsn) ->
diff --git a/deploy/packages/deb/debian/rules b/deploy/packages/deb/debian/rules
index 4a06bbe26..305b8ffd0 100755
--- a/deploy/packages/deb/debian/rules
+++ b/deploy/packages/deb/debian/rules
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ install: build
 	mkdir -p debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/bin
 	mkdir -p debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/plugins
 	touch debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/plugins/.keep
+	mkdir -p debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/data/patches
+	touch debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/data/patches/.keep
 	mkdir -p debian/emqx/etc/emqx
 	cp bin/* debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx/bin
 	cp -R lib debian/emqx/usr/lib/emqx
diff --git a/deploy/packages/rpm/emqx.spec b/deploy/packages/rpm/emqx.spec
index 4839d1a7d..25e82eacd 100644
--- a/deploy/packages/rpm/emqx.spec
+++ b/deploy/packages/rpm/emqx.spec
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ EMQX, a distributed, massively scalable, highly extensible MQTT message broker.
 %install
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/plugins
+mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/data/patches
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_log_dir}
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_unitdir}
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_conf_dir}
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_var_home}
 
 cp -R %{_reldir}/lib %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/
 touch %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/plugins/.keep
+touch %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/data/patches/.keep
 cp -R %{_reldir}/erts-* %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/
 cp -R %{_reldir}/releases %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/
 cp -R %{_reldir}/bin %{buildroot}%{_lib_home}/