Hi all — I'm trying to deploy Nakama on Railway using the official`heroiclabs/nakama` Docker image. ### What I Want * Run Nakama server on Railway * Connect it to Railway’s PostgreSQL service * Use environment variables like `DATABASE_URL` and `ENCRYPTION_KEY` * Access Nakama Console for testing ### What's Not Working * Deployment succeeds, but Nakama logs keep showing: `Error pinging database` * I’ve added the correct `DATABASE_URL` and `ENCRYPTION_KEY` as Railway environment variables. * Tried both Dockerfile and direct Docker image approaches with valid start commands — still no luck. ### 💬 What I Need * Is there a working example or guide for this setup? * Does Nakama expect a specific database name or user? * What's the recommended start command when using Railway’s Postgres? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi there i tried deploying from the image directly and i got the same error so created a Dockerfile with the migrate and pushed it to a repo on railway you will need twp services one is the code from the repo and one for the postgres copy the DATABASE\_URL over to the nakama service and generate a railway domain choosing the port for the console ![](https://station-server.railway.com/attachments/att_01jxja4ma4exwrm6qfw6cdftnk) and 🎉[https://nakama-production-07f4.up.railway.app](https://nakama-production-07f4.up.railway.app/#/modules) ![](https://station-server.railway.com/attachments/att_01jxjatt1kf699pash5et4q4w3) as for mapping for the other ports that remains a bit of a mystery TBH 🙂 but in theory if would set up a new domain for each port and it should work just fine for the gRPC API you might be able to use ``` grpc://nakama.railway.internal:7349 ``` feel free to fork the repo and deploy it in your own account 🙂 if you found this answer to be helpful feel free to mark it as Accepted 🙏 thanks alex

Trouble Deploying Nakama with PostgreSQL on Railway

ru-dr

HOBBYOP

a year ago

Hi all — I'm trying to deploy Nakama on Railway using the officialheroiclabs/nakama Docker image.

What I Want

Run Nakama server on Railway
Connect it to Railway’s PostgreSQL service
Use environment variables like DATABASE_URL and ENCRYPTION_KEY
Access Nakama Console for testing

What's Not Working

Deployment succeeds, but Nakama logs keep showing: Error pinging database
I’ve added the correct DATABASE_URL and ENCRYPTION_KEY as Railway environment variables.
Tried both Dockerfile and direct Docker image approaches with valid start commands — still no luck.

💬 What I Need

Is there a working example or guide for this setup?
Does Nakama expect a specific database name or user?
What's the recommended start command when using Railway’s Postgres?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Solved$10 Bounty

Pinned Solution

alexwebgr

HOBBY

a year ago

Hi there

i tried deploying from the image directly and i got the same error so created a Dockerfile with the migrate and pushed it to a repo https://github.com/alexwebgr/nakama

on railway you will need twp services one is the code from the repo and one for the postgres copy the DATABASE_URL over to the nakama service and generate a railway domain choosing the port for the console

and 🎉https://nakama-production-07f4.up.railway.app

as for mapping for the other ports that remains a bit of a mystery TBH 🙂 but in theory if would set up a new domain for each port and it should work just fine

for the gRPC API you might be able to use

grpc://nakama.railway.internal:7349

feel free to fork the repo and deploy it in your own account 🙂

if you found this answer to be helpful feel free to mark it as Accepted 🙏

thanks

alex

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3 Replies

alexwebgr

HOBBY

a year ago

Hi there

i tried deploying from the image directly and i got the same error so created a Dockerfile with the migrate and pushed it to a repo https://github.com/alexwebgr/nakama

on railway you will need twp services one is the code from the repo and one for the postgres copy the DATABASE_URL over to the nakama service and generate a railway domain choosing the port for the console

and 🎉https://nakama-production-07f4.up.railway.app

as for mapping for the other ports that remains a bit of a mystery TBH 🙂 but in theory if would set up a new domain for each port and it should work just fine

for the gRPC API you might be able to use