# Cannot start Nakama with config from postgres guideline

**URL:** <https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/cannot-start-nakama-with-config-from-postgres-guideline/5965>\
**Category:** Local Setup\
**Tags:** getting-started\
**Created:** [January 22, 2025, 6:49am UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/cannot-start-nakama-with-config-from-postgres-guideline/5965 "2025-01-22T06:49:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lolerji](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.heroiclabs.com/lolerji/32/2452_2.png) [@lolerji](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/u/lolerji)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 6:49am UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/cannot-start-nakama-with-config-from-postgres-guideline/5965/1 "2025-01-22T06:49:22Z")

</div>

I have been trying to setup Nakama with the sample configuration from github. I successfully started a previous server using that configuration but couldn’t add custom config so I tried to start from scratch. Then I started receiving errors. The configuration is as follows:

```auto
version: '3'
services:
  postgres:
    container_name: postgres
    image: postgres:12.2-alpine
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=nakama
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=localdb
    volumes:
      - data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    expose:
      - "8080"
      - "5432"
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
      - "8080:8080"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-U", "postgres", "-d", "nakama"]
      interval: 3s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 5
  nakama:
    container_name: nakama
    image: registry.heroiclabs.com/heroiclabs/nakama:3.25.0
    entrypoint:
      - "/bin/sh"
      - "-ecx"
      - >
          /nakama/nakama migrate up --database.address postgres:localdb@postgres:5432/nakama &&
          exec /nakama/nakama --name nakama1 --database.address postgres:localdb@postgres:5432/nakama --logger.level DEBUG --session.token_expiry_sec 7200
    restart: always
    links:
      - "postgres:db"
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    volumes:
      - ./:/nakama/data
    expose:
      - "7349"
      - "7350"
      - "7351"
    ports:
      - "7349:7349"
      - "7350:7350"
      - "7351:7351"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "/nakama/nakama", "healthcheck"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
volumes:
  data:

```

When I run docker compose, I get this error:

```auto
nakama | + /nakama/nakama migrate up --database.address postgres:localdb@postgres:5432/nakama
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:32:24.589 UTC [1137] FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres"
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:32:24.589 UTC [1137] DETAIL: Password does not match for user "postgres".
postgres | Connection matched pg_hba.conf line 95: "host all all all md5"
nakama | {"level":"fatal","ts":"2025-01-22T06:32:24.590Z","caller":"server/db.go:88","msg":"Failed to check if db exists","db":"nakama","error":"failed to connect to `user=postgres database=nakama`:\n\t172.18.0.2:5432 (postgres): tls error: server refused TLS connection\n\t172.18.0.2:5432 (postgres): server error: FATAL: password authentication failed for user \"postgres\" (SQLSTATE 28P01)"}
nakama exited with code 1

```

I also receive a warning when postgres is being setup

```auto
 ! nakama The requested image's platform (linux/amd64) does not match the detected host platform (linux/arm64/v8) and no specific platform was requested 0.0s 
Attaching to nakama, postgres
postgres | 
postgres | PostgreSQL Database directory appears to contain a database; Skipping initialization
postgres | 
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.187 UTC [1] LOG: starting PostgreSQL 12.2 on aarch64-unknown-linux-musl, compiled by gcc (Alpine 9.2.0) 9.2.0, 64-bit
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.187 UTC [1] LOG: listening on IPv4 address "0.0.0.0", port 5432
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.187 UTC [1] LOG: listening on IPv6 address "::", port 5432
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.189 UTC [1] LOG: listening on Unix socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.194 UTC [21] LOG: database system was shut down at 2025-01-22 06:36:27 UTC
postgres | 2025-01-22 06:37:00.196 UTC [1] LOG: database system is ready to accept connections

```

I am on MacOS which runs on an Apple Silicon machine.

Versions:

- Nakama: 3.5
- Postgres: 12.2-alpine
- MacOS: Sequoia 15.0
- Chip: M1 Max

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lolerji](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.heroiclabs.com/lolerji/32/2452_2.png) [@lolerji](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/u/lolerji)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/cannot-start-nakama-with-config-from-postgres-guideline/5965/2 "2025-01-22T08:18:56Z")

</div>

Okay, so solved the password issue. Apparently the volume still existed for the db after I deleted the previous container. Since the name of the volume was the same, it tried to use the same db.

Since I am using the same configuration, the one from the guide, I would expect the new container could connect as well but it wasn’t the case. Now it is working.

So, if anyone encounters a similar issue, check the volumes in the docker desktop and delete volumes created by previous containers as they might cause problems if your new container is trying to use those.