diff --git a/ui/resources/application.properties b/ui/resources/application.properties
index 07c0935..cbde716 100644
--- a/ui/resources/application.properties
+++ b/ui/resources/application.properties
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ logging.level.org.apache.tika.parser=error
 logging.level.org.apache.fontbox=error
 logging.level.org.apache.pdfbox=error
 logging.level.org.vibur=warn
+logging.level.org.springframework.jdbc.support.DatabaseStartupValidator=debug
 
 # Management actuators
 management.endpoints.web.exposure.include=loggers
diff --git a/ui/src/bamboo/config/DatabaseStartupConfig.java b/ui/src/bamboo/config/DatabaseStartupConfig.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2dbe246
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/src/bamboo/config/DatabaseStartupConfig.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package bamboo.config;
+
+import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryDependsOnPostProcessor;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+import org.springframework.jdbc.support.DatabaseStartupValidator;
+
+import javax.sql.DataSource;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+@Configuration
+public class DatabaseStartupConfig {
+    @Bean
+    public DatabaseStartupValidator databaseStartupValidator(DataSource dataSource) {
+        var validator = new DatabaseStartupValidator();
+        validator.setDataSource(dataSource);
+        validator.setTimeout((int) TimeUnit.DAYS.toSeconds(7));
+        return validator;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * This makes EntityManagerFactory depend on DatabaseStartupValidator to block startup
+     * until the database is ready.
+     */
+    @Bean
+    public static EntityManagerFactoryDependsOnPostProcessor databaseStartupDependency() {
+        return new EntityManagerFactoryDependsOnPostProcessor("databaseStartupValidator");
+    }
+}