How to connect GitHub repository to a Dockerized database?

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out the correct way to connect my application (hosted/pulled from GitHub) to a database running inside Docker (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, etc.).

Common problems I’m facing:

Connection refused / timeout when the app starts
Hardcoding database credentials or host IP doesn’t work reliably
Database container and app container can’t communicate properly
Environment variables not being read correctly

What is the best/recommended way to:

Run the DB in Docker
Pull and run my code from GitHub (via GitHub Actions, Dockerfile, docker-compose, etc.)
Make the app successfully connect to the Docker database

Any working docker-compose.yml examples or step-by-step guides would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance!

alexdo · Answer

Hello, @jackpotjunkremovallasvegas You can put your app and your DB in the same docker-compose.yml , let Docker handle networking, and connect using the service name as the host , with credentials coming from environment variables (or a .env file), not hard-coded values or IPs. From there, most of the “connection refused / timeout / env not read” problems disappear. Imagine your app lives in this repo and has a Dockerfile at the root. The app expects DB settings from environment variables like DB_HOST, DB_USER, etc. Here’s an example docker-compose.yml: version: "3.9" services: db: image: postgres:16 container_name: myapp-db environment: POSTGRES_USER: myuser POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mypassword POSTGRES_DB: myapp volumes: - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data ports: - "5432:5432" healthcheck: test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U myuser -d myapp"] interval: 5s timeout: 5s retries: 10 app: build: . container_name: myapp-app depends_on: db: condition: service_healthy environment: DB_HOST: db # IMPORTANT: use service name, not localhost or IP DB_PORT: 5432 DB_USER: myuser DB_PASSWORD: mypassword DB_NAME: myapp # any other env your app needs... ports: - "8000:8000" # command: ["your", "start", "command"] # if not defined in Dockerfile volumes: db_data: Regards

Bobby · Answer

Hi, The easiest and most reliable setup is to run your app and your database inside the same docker-compose network. Instead of connecting via IPs, you simply use the service name as the hostname and Docker handles the DNS resolution for you. Here’s a small example: services: db: image: postgres:16 environment: POSTGRES_PASSWORD: example ports: - 5432:5432 app: build: . env_file: .env depends_on: - db environment: DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:example@db:5432/mydb With this setup, your app talks to the database at ‘db:5432’ rather than an IP. Credentials should go into environment variables or an env file so you don’t have to hardcode anything. Compose automatically creates a shared network, so the containers can communicate cleanly without extra config. If you’re pulling the code from GitHub, let GitHub Actions build and push your application image, then run it with compose on your server. https://devops-daily.com/posts/rebuild-docker-container-compose If you want to avoid managing the database yourself, you can also look into DigitalOcean Managed Databases which make this part much easier: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/

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How to connect GitHub repository to a Dockerized database?

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