diff --git a/app/Config/database.php b/app/Config/database.php
index ed654ffb9..6e7cf529c 100644
--- a/app/Config/database.php
+++ b/app/Config/database.php
@@ -81,10 +81,11 @@ return [
         'mysql_testing' => [
             'driver'    => 'mysql',
             'url' => env('TEST_DATABASE_URL'),
-            'host'      => '127.0.0.1',
+            'host'      => $mysql_host,
             'database'  => 'bookstack-test',
             'username'  => env('MYSQL_USER', 'bookstack-test'),
             'password'  => env('MYSQL_PASSWORD', 'bookstack-test'),
+            'port'      => $mysql_port,
             'charset'   => 'utf8mb4',
             'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
             'prefix'    => '',
diff --git a/dev/docker/entrypoint.app.sh b/dev/docker/entrypoint.app.sh
index e91d34a71..9709139ab 100755
--- a/dev/docker/entrypoint.app.sh
+++ b/dev/docker/entrypoint.app.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ else
     composer install
     wait-for-it db:3306 -t 45
     php artisan migrate --database=mysql
+    php artisan migrate --database=mysql_testing
     chown -R www-data:www-data storage
     exec apache2-foreground
 fi
diff --git a/dev/docker/init.db/01.sql b/dev/docker/init.db/01.sql
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2536c3f80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/docker/init.db/01.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# create test database
+CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `bookstack-test`;
+
+# grant rights
+GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `bookstack-test`.* TO 'bookstack-test'@'%';
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 39f5bdc18..037c5f67e 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -10,12 +10,13 @@ services:
   db:
     image: mysql:8
     environment:
-      MYSQL_DATABASE: bookstack-test
+      MYSQL_DATABASE: bookstack-dev
       MYSQL_USER: bookstack-test
       MYSQL_PASSWORD: bookstack-test
       MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'true'
     command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
     volumes:
+      - ./dev/docker/init.db:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
       - db:/var/lib/mysql
   app:
     build:
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ services:
       DB_CONNECTION: mysql
       DB_HOST: db
       DB_PORT: 3306
-      DB_DATABASE: bookstack-test
+      DB_DATABASE: bookstack-dev
       DB_USERNAME: bookstack-test
       DB_PASSWORD: bookstack-test
       MAIL_DRIVER: smtp
diff --git a/phpunit.xml b/phpunit.xml
index 033218288..3bcedfb42 100644
--- a/phpunit.xml
+++ b/phpunit.xml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
         </whitelist>
     </filter>
     <php>
-        <server name="APP_ENV" value="testing"/>
+        <env name="APP_ENV" value="testing" force="true"/>
         <server name="APP_DEBUG" value="false"/>
         <server name="APP_LANG" value="en"/>
         <server name="APP_THEME" value="none"/>
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
         <server name="CACHE_DRIVER" value="array"/>
         <server name="SESSION_DRIVER" value="array"/>
         <server name="QUEUE_CONNECTION" value="sync"/>
-        <server name="DB_CONNECTION" value="mysql_testing"/>
+        <env name="DB_CONNECTION" value="mysql_testing" force="true"/>
         <server name="BCRYPT_ROUNDS" value="4"/>
         <server name="MAIL_DRIVER" value="array"/>
         <server name="LOG_CHANNEL" value="single"/>
@@ -56,5 +56,6 @@
         <server name="LOG_FAILED_LOGIN_MESSAGE" value=""/>
         <server name="LOG_FAILED_LOGIN_CHANNEL" value="testing"/>
         <server name="WKHTMLTOPDF" value="false"/>
+        <ini name="memory_limit" value="1024M"/>
     </php>
 </phpunit>
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 8cce8e661..d4cccf0d6 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -96,18 +96,29 @@ If all the conditions are met, you can proceed with the following steps:
 1. **Copy `.env.example` to `.env`**, change `APP_KEY` to a random 32 char string and set `APP_ENV` to `local`.
 2. Make sure **port 8080 is unused** *or else* change `DEV_PORT` to a free port on your host.
 3. **Run `chgrp -R docker storage`**. The development container will chown the `storage` directory to the `www-data` user inside the container so BookStack can write to it. You need to change the group to your host's `docker` group here to not lose access to the `storage` directory.
-4. **Run `echo -e "\n\nDOCKER_UID=$(id -u)" >> .env && echo "DOCKER_GID=$(id -g)" >> .env`** to add your UID/GID to the `.env` file. This is then used to set permissions inside the docker. This is necessary if you are working on Linux.
-5. **Run `docker-compose up`** and wait until the image is built and all database migrations have been done.
-6. You can now login with `admin@admin.com` and `password` as password on `localhost:8080` (or another port if specified).
+4. **Run `docker-compose up`** and wait until the image is built and all database migrations have been done.
+5. You can now login with `admin@admin.com` and `password` as password on `localhost:8080` (or another port if specified).
 
 If needed, You'll be able to run any artisan commands via docker-compose like so:
 
- ```shell script
+```shell script
 docker-compose run app php artisan list
 ```
 
 The docker-compose setup runs an instance of [MailHog](https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog) and sets environment variables to redirect any BookStack-sent emails to MailHog. You can view this mail via the MailHog web interface on `localhost:8025`. You can change the port MailHog is accessible on by setting a `DEV_MAIL_PORT` environment variable.
 
+#### Running tests
+
+After starting the general development Docker, seed the testing database:
+ ```shell script
+# this is to be done only once
+docker-compose run app php artisan db:seed --class=DummyContentSeeder --database=mysql_testing
+```
+
+Once the database has been seeded, you can run the tests by:
+ ```shell script
+docker-compose run app php vendor/bin/phpunit
+```
 ## 🌎 Translations
 
 Translations for text within BookStack is managed through the [BookStack project on Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/project/bookstack). Some strings have colon-prefixed variables in such as `:userName`. Leave these values as they are as they will be replaced at run-time. Crowdin is the preferred way to provide translations, otherwise the raw translations files can be found within the `resources/lang` path.