Unable to run openmrs-distro-referenceapplication locally using docker compose

Ask OpenMRS
1

Application Name: openmrs-distro-referenceapplication

Version Number: default and also 3.6.0

Question: I am trying to run GitHub - openmrs/openmrs-distro-referenceapplication: The reference distribution of the OpenMRS EMR application (v3) · GitHub locally. The README says do this:

docker compose up

But I’m getting this error:

backend-1 | ERROR - AddressConfigurationLoader.loadAddressConfiguration(67) |2026-05-12T11:23:53,403| Address hierarchy configuration file appears invalid, skipping the loading process: /openmrs/data/configuration/addresshierarchy/addressConfiguration.xml

The error makes sense because when I exec into the backend container I can see that the file is located in /openmrs/data/configuration/addresshierarchy/referenceapplication-demo/addressConfiguration.xml and not /openmrs/data/configuration/addresshierarchy/addressConfiguration.xml

docker compose exec backend ls -la /openmrs/data/configuration/addresshierarchy

drwxr-xr-x 2 1001 root 4096 May 12 11:27 referenceapplication-demo

docker compose exec backend ls -la /openmrs/data/configuration/addresshierarchy/referenceapplication-demo

-rw-r–r-- 1 1001 root 1563 May 12 11:27 addressConfiguration.xml

-rw-r–r-- 1 1001 root 27744 May 12 11:27 addresshierarchy.csv

I tried using a specific version:

TAG=“3.6.0” docker compose up

But that failed in the same way. Any help would be appreciated.

2

This is just skipping a file. It’s not stopping the application from starting. I suspect you just have to wait a little bit longer for the initial database population to complete.

3

Thanks @ibacher - it was indeed a patience problem from my side - up and running now :slight_smile:

4

If it takes so long to a point of confusing you, then it is a problem for us to fix. :slight_smile: