How do I use two databases with docker compose?

Question

I have set up an php laravel sql platform with docker compose with the following docker compose.yml. I only have one database(with production data) but I also want to test out somethings with dummy data, therefore I need to set up another database without going back and forth. What is the most simple and effective way I can do this. I am using Dbeaver for DB management.

services:
  web:
    build: 
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: web
    working_dir: /var/www/html
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
      - ./config/php:/usr/local/etc
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    networks:
      - mfund-network
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
  db:
    image: mysql:5.7.33
    container_name: db
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: production
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_USER: user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: yes
    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
    networks:
      - mfund-network
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "mysqladmin ping -h db -P 3306 -u root -p$$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 20s
      retries: 30
networks:
  my-network:
    driver: bridge
volumes:
  dbdata:

I have tried creating two database with one connection in Dbeaver with init.sql but I can't seem to switch between the two unless I use docker compose down -v which completely wipes out all the volume and I have to import the production data and set up again. If possible, I don't want to restart the container, I simply want to switch between the databases I will be working on.

-- Create the test database if it doesn't exist
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS test;

I want two databases: production and test

RCDevs Security · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-21 06:47:03Z

If you want to create two databases, you can put a SQL script in /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d folder of container. Script will be executed the first time the container is started.

Script can be:

-- Create the production database if it doesn't exist
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS production;

-- Create the test database if it doesn't exist
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS test;

and in your docker-compose.yml, add a volume for above script so it is linked to the /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d folder:

    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
      - ./init.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init.sql

You may have to adapt SQL script in order to create user accounts, and give them right permissions.

Not related to your question: upgrade your MySQL version to 8.4 (has support until 2032), as version 5.7 is not supported since almost 2 years.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How do I use two databases with docker compose?

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related