Fixing Flyway Database Connection Errors in Docker

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:19:05 +0100

Before reading this blog i suggest you have a quick look at how Docker Compose starts services especially how databases take time to initialize before they start accepting connections.

so basically, when you work with microservices, each service has its own database (in my case: patient-db, doctor-db…). and when Spring Boot starts, Flyway tries to run the migration scripts immediately.

But there is a problem:

Flyway is much faster than PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL says: “I’m starting…”
Flyway says: “I want to connect now.”
PostgreSQL says: “Wait wait wait hold on…”
Flyway says: “Connection refused.”

Postgresql on Ayoub's Blog

Fixing Flyway Database Connection Errors in Docker