diff --git a/ushahidi/srv/ushahidi/update-url.sh b/ushahidi/srv/ushahidi/update-url.sh
index 11df8e4..261b8ff 100755
--- a/ushahidi/srv/ushahidi/update-url.sh
+++ b/ushahidi/srv/ushahidi/update-url.sh
@@ -5,5 +5,12 @@ HOST="${1}"
 
 sed -i "s|^    \"backend_url\".*|    \"backend_url\": \"https://${HOST}/platform\",|" /srv/ushahidi/conf/config.json
 
+if [ ! -e /run/openrc/started/mariadb ]; then
+    service mariadb start
+    STOP_MARIADB=1
+fi
 API_URL='\\\"https:\\\\/\\\\/'${HOST}'\\\\/platform\\\\/api\\\\/v3\\\\/config\\\\/data-provider\\\"'
 echo 'UPDATE `config` SET `config_value` = "'${API_URL}'" WHERE `group_name` LIKE "data-provider" AND `config_key` LIKE "url";' | docker exec -i mariadb mysql ushahidi
+if [ ${STOP_MARIADB} ]; then
+    service mariadb stop
+fi