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Running Keycloak with the embedded database is fine for demos.

But not for production.

In this video, I show you how to configure Keycloak to use PostgreSQL instead, using a practical Docker Compose setup you can adapt to your own application.

We walk through:

- Adding a Postgres container
- Creating a dedicated schema for Keycloak
- Configuring the required Keycloak database environment variables
- Wiring everything together in Docker Compose
- Testing the full auth flow through Swagger
- Verifying the data directly in Postgres

I also show you what Keycloak actually creates in the database once it starts up, including realms, users, credentials, and the full schema behind the scenes.

By the end, you’ll have a much better idea of how to run Keycloak with a real database and what is actually happening under the hood.

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Chapters

We Are .NET

A step-by-step guide to connecting Keycloak to a PostgreSQL database using Docker Compose for production deployments. Covers defining a Postgres service, creating a dedicated Keycloak schema, configuring all required KC_DB environment variables, and verifying the setup by inspecting the resulting 90-table schema. Also briefly explores how Keycloak stores user credentials using Argon2 hashing with salts.

Don't Deploy Keycloak Without a Real Database (Postgres Setup)