How to Configure Multiple Database Connections in a Laravel Project Using Docker

In this tutorial we guide you step‑by‑step to configure multiple database connections in a Laravel project using Docker, explaining both the practical commands and the underlying integration between Docker and Laravel’s database settings.

Step 1: Create a new folder in the Laravel project to store Docker and configuration files. For example:

mkdir myFolder

Step 2: Create new environment and configuration files inside myFolder . Add a .env file to define variables such as DB_PORT , DB_USERNAME , and DB_HOST . Also create a docker-compose.yml file to describe Docker services, networks, and volumes.

Step 3: Docker Compose configuration – open the docker-compose.yml file and add service definitions for the Laravel app, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, ensuring the environment variables match those in the .env file. Example:

version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    image: laravel:latest
    container_name: laravel_app
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - postgres

  mysql:
    image: mysql:5.7
    container_name: mysql_db
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpassword
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel_db1
      MYSQL_USER: user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql

  postgres:
    image: postgres:13
    container_name: postgres_db
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: laravel_db2
      POSTGRES_USER: user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  mysql_data:
  postgres_data:

Step 4: Start Docker containers by navigating to the directory containing docker-compose.yml and running:

docker-compose up -d

Verify that the containers are running with:

docker ps

Step 5: Connect the databases to a client such as Dbvear (or any other database management tool) using the credentials defined in the .env file.

Step 6: Test the connections by executing queries to ensure the Laravel application can communicate with each database without issues.

Conclusion – By following these steps you have successfully used Docker to configure multiple database connections for a Laravel project, improving the organization, manageability, and flexibility of your development environment.