diff --git a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/extra-data.d/55-cache-devstack-repos b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/extra-data.d/55-cache-devstack-repos
index f80c9f7171..0f36244fa1 100755
--- a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/extra-data.d/55-cache-devstack-repos
+++ b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/extra-data.d/55-cache-devstack-repos
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ def main():
                 image_filenames.append(fname)
                 args = dict(
                     name=fname,
-                    location=os.path.join('/home/jenkins/cache/files', fname),
+                    location=os.path.join('/opt/cache/files', fname),
                     url=url)
 
                 images_list.write(line_template % args)
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-pip b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-pip
index 17ebe80a69..e5c6dea8f0 100644
--- a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-pip
+++ b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-pip
@@ -1 +1 @@
-get-pip-py file /home/jenkins/cache/files/get-pip.py https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
+get-pip-py file /opt/cache/files/get-pip.py https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-stackviz b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-stackviz
index b855e51c2b..ff79ecf0a9 100644
--- a/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-stackviz
+++ b/nodepool/elements/cache-devstack/source-repository-stackviz
@@ -1 +1 @@
-stackviz file /home/jenkins/cache/files/stackviz-latest.tar.gz http://tarballs.openstack.org/package-stackviz-element/stackviz-latest.tar.gz
+stackviz file /opt/cache/files/stackviz-latest.tar.gz http://tarballs.openstack.org/package-stackviz-element/stackviz-latest.tar.gz
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/jenkins-slave/install.d/20-jenkins-slave b/nodepool/elements/jenkins-slave/install.d/20-jenkins-slave
index d72da14564..eabb9c5316 100755
--- a/nodepool/elements/jenkins-slave/install.d/20-jenkins-slave
+++ b/nodepool/elements/jenkins-slave/install.d/20-jenkins-slave
@@ -6,9 +6,18 @@ fi
 set -eu
 set -o pipefail
 
+# Add jenkins user and group.  Note we don't want to rely on
+# "useradd"'s group adding behaviour, because it might differ across
+# distros.
 groupadd jenkins
 useradd -g jenkins -m jenkins -s /bin/bash
 
+# a lot of caching happens in extra-data.d (for "historical" reasons).
+# We've put the cache stuff into /opt/cache/files, but again, for
+# "historical" reasons, ensure this is available in /home/jenkins
+mkdir -p /home/jenkins/cache
+ln -sf /opt/cache/files /home/jenkins/cache/files
+
 # this was copied from outside the chroot by extras.d
 _pub_key=/tmp/in_target.d/jenkins-user-ssh-public-key
 if [ ! -f $_pub_key ]; then