<p>I have a local PostgreSQL instance running on a non-container instance and I am not sure if I am doing the configuration right in SpringBoot or in Docker. When running the SpringBoot application on the <code>local</code> profile that contains all necessary details to the local PostgreSQL instance, the boot-up is successful. However, when I do it via Docker, everything doesn't work up and returns this error instead when running the container locally.</p>
<p><strong>Dockerfile</strong></p>
<pre><code>FROM openjdk:15-alpine

ENV DB_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/sampledb
ENV DB_USER=dbuser
ENV DB_PASS=dbpass

ARG JAR_FILE=target/*.jar
COPY ${JAR_FILE} app.jar

ENTRYPOINT [ &quot;java&quot;, \
    &quot;-jar&quot;, \
    &quot;-Dspring.profiles.active=docker&quot;, \
    &quot;-Dapp.database.url=${DB_URL}&quot;, \
    &quot;-Dapp.database.user=${DB_USER}&quot;, \
    &quot;-Dapp.database.pass=${DB_PASS}&quot;, \
    &quot;/app.jar&quot; ]
</code></pre>
<p><strong>application-docker.properties</strong></p>
<pre><code>spring.datasource.url=${app.database.url}
spring.datasource.username=${app.database.user}
spring.datasource.password=${app.database.pass}
</code></pre>
<p>I use this command after building the <code>Dockerfile</code>:</p>
<pre><code>docker run -it -p 8080:8080 &lt;container_name&gt;
</code></pre>
<p>Now the container console logs prints this error and I don't have any database connection.</p>
<pre><code>2021-02-02 16:54:02.702 ERROR 1 --- [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool        : HikariPool-1 - Exception during pool initialization.

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: Connection to localhost:5432 refused. Check that the hostname and port are correct and that the postmaster is accepting TCP/IP connections.
        at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:303) ~[postgresql-42.2.18.jar!/:42.2.18]
        at org.postgresql.core.ConnectionFactory.openConnection(ConnectionFactory.java:51) ~[postgresql-42.2.18.jar!/:42.2.18]
        at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgConnection.&lt;init&gt;(PgConnection.java:225) ~[postgresql-42.2.18.jar!/:42.2.18]

</code></pre>
<p>I know I should have gone through setting PostgreSQL as a docker container. However, I need to PostgreSQL to be an external resource in the Kubernetes cluster.</p>

David B
<p>Okay, so assuming you are running the Postgres database in the same machine that is running the docker container, there is a special DNS that points to the localhost of the host which is: <code>host.docker.internal</code>. (Remember localhost in a docker container points to the same container)</p>
<p>So, <code>spring.datasource.url=host.docker.internal</code> should point to your host localhost and not the docker container.</p>
