diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/UpgradeController.php b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/UpgradeController.php
index 0d641704b..a6294bd94 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/UpgradeController.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/UpgradeController.php
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ class UpgradeController extends Zend_Controller_Action
             //create a temporary maintenance notification file
             //when this file is on the server, zend framework redirects all
             //requests to the maintenance page and sets a 503 response code
-            $maintenanceFile = $_SERVER['AIRTIME_BASE']."maintenance.txt";
+
+            $maintenanceFile = isset($_SERVER['AIRTIME_BASE']) ? $_SERVER['AIRTIME_BASE']."maintenance.txt" : "/tmp/maintenance.txt";
             $file = fopen($maintenanceFile, 'w');
             fclose($file);
 
diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/plugins/Maintenance.php b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/plugins/Maintenance.php
index 46937f582..f6baf6201 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/plugins/Maintenance.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/plugins/Maintenance.php
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 class Zend_Controller_Plugin_Maintenance extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract
 {
-    protected $maintenanceFile = '/tmp/maintenance.txt';
-
     public function preDispatch(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request) {
-        if (file_exists($this->maintenanceFile)) {
+        $maintenanceFile = isset($_SERVER['AIRTIME_BASE']) ? $_SERVER['AIRTIME_BASE']."maintenance.txt" : "/tmp/maintenance.txt";
+
+        if (file_exists($maintenanceFile)) {
             $request->setModuleName('default')
                     ->setControllerName('index')
                     ->setActionName('maintenance')