diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d6a10e3cb4e..cf82b40dac6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ keep it up to date, documenting the purpose of the various types of tests.
 
 By default `rspec` will randomly pick between postgres and mysql.
 
+#### Running the Units Tests in Docker
+
+If you don't want to set up a up a test DB locally, you can run
+`./scripts/start-db-in-docker.sh`. This script will start a docker container
+with a running postgres. Then you can run the tests from the docker container
+by running `rspec`.
+
+#### Running the Test DB Locally
 If postgres is not running on your OSX machine, you can start up a server by doing the following:
 ```
 brew services start postgresql
diff --git a/scripts/docker-shell-with-started-db b/scripts/docker-shell-with-started-db
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..b3c87a9b4f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/docker-shell-with-started-db
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e -u
+
+ROOT_DIR_PATH="$(cd $(dirname $0)/.. && pwd)"
+cd "${ROOT_DIR_PATH}"
+
+# if DB not set, default to postgres because we usually use
+# postgres in our deployments
+db=${DB:-"postgres"}
+
+if [ "$db" = "mysql" ]; then
+  docker_image=cloudfoundry/tas-runtime-mysql-5.7
+elif [ "$db" = "mysql8" ]; then
+  docker_image=cloudfoundry/tas-runtime-mysql-8.0
+else
+  docker_image=cloudfoundry/tas-runtime-postgres
+fi
+
+
+if [[ "${DB}" =~ mysql ]]; then
+  db=mysql
+fi
+
+docker run \
+   --rm \
+   -it \
+   --privileged \
+   -v "${PWD}:/cloud_controller_ng" \
+   -e "DB=$db" \
+   --cap-add ALL \
+   -w /cloud_controller_ng \
+   $docker_image \
+   /cloud_controller_ng/scripts/start-db-in-docker.sh "$@"
diff --git a/scripts/start-db-in-docker.sh b/scripts/start-db-in-docker.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..1adc6852072
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/start-db-in-docker.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e -u
+
+SCRIPT_PATH="$(cd "$(dirname "${0}")" && pwd)"
+
+function bootDB {
+  db="$1"
+
+  if [ "${db}" = "postgres" ]; then
+    launchDB="(/postgres-entrypoint.sh postgres &> /var/log/postgres-boot.log) &"
+    testConnection="psql -h localhost -U postgres -c '\conninfo'"
+  elif [ "${db}" = "mysql" ]  || [ "${db}" = "mysql-5.6" ] || [ "${db}" = "mysql8" ]; then
+    launchDB="(MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=password /mysql-entrypoint.sh mysqld &> /var/log/mysql-boot.log) &"
+    testConnection="mysql -h localhost -u root -D mysql -e '\s;' --password='password'"
+  else
+    echo "skipping database"
+    return 0
+  fi
+
+  echo -n "booting ${db}"
+  eval "$launchDB"
+  for _ in $(seq 1 60); do
+    if eval "${testConnection}" &> /dev/null; then
+      echo "connection established to ${db}"
+      return 0
+    fi
+    echo -n "."
+    sleep 1
+  done
+  eval "${testConnection}" || true
+  echo "unable to connect to ${db}"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+function moreSetup {
+  apt-get update
+  apt-get install -y libpq-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev
+  bundle install
+  rake db:create
+}
+
+cd /cloud_controller_ng
+export GOPATH=$PWD
+
+bootDB "${DB:-"notset"}"
+moreSetup
+
+set +e
+exec /bin/bash "$@"