diff --git a/make/photon/adminserver/Dockerfile b/make/photon/adminserver/Dockerfile
index 46803cdff..948fe184c 100644
--- a/make/photon/adminserver/Dockerfile
+++ b/make/photon/adminserver/Dockerfile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ RUN tdnf erase vim -y \
     && groupadd -r -g 10000 harbor && useradd --no-log-init -r -g 10000 -u 10000 harbor \
     && mkdir /harbor/
 COPY ./make/dev/adminserver/harbor_adminserver ./make/photon/adminserver/start.sh /harbor/
-#There is a race condition that both ui and adminserver may initialize schema
+#As UI will be blocked until adminserver is ready, let adminserver do the initialise work for DB
 COPY ./make/migrations /harbor/migrations
 
 HEALTHCHECK CMD curl --fail -s http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/ping || exit 1 
diff --git a/make/photon/ui/Dockerfile b/make/photon/ui/Dockerfile
index 787341523..ad32c945e 100644
--- a/make/photon/ui/Dockerfile
+++ b/make/photon/ui/Dockerfile
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@ HEALTHCHECK CMD curl --fail -s http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/ping || exit 1
 COPY ./make/dev/ui/harbor_ui ./src/favicon.ico ./make/photon/ui/start.sh ./UIVERSION /harbor/
 COPY ./src/ui/views /harbor/views
 COPY ./src/ui/static /harbor/static
-#There is a race condition that both ui and adminserver may initialize schema
-COPY ./make/migrations /harbor/migrations
 
 RUN chmod u+x /harbor/start.sh /harbor/harbor_ui
 WORKDIR /harbor/
diff --git a/src/adminserver/systemcfg/systemcfg.go b/src/adminserver/systemcfg/systemcfg.go
index 7fe0f77e2..bf74fca9e 100644
--- a/src/adminserver/systemcfg/systemcfg.go
+++ b/src/adminserver/systemcfg/systemcfg.go
@@ -245,9 +245,24 @@ func parseStringToBool(str string) (interface{}, error) {
 // Init system configurations. If env RESET is set or configurations
 // read from storage driver is null, load all configurations from env
 func Init() (err error) {
-	if err = initCfgStore(); err != nil {
+	//init database
+	envCfgs := map[string]interface{}{}
+	if err := LoadFromEnv(envCfgs, true); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	db := GetDatabaseFromCfg(envCfgs)
+	//Initialize the schema, then register the DB.
+	if err := dao.UpgradeSchema(db); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if err := dao.InitDatabase(db); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if err := initCfgStore(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	cfgs := map[string]interface{}{}
 	//Use reload key to avoid reset customed setting after restart
 	curCfgs, err := CfgStore.Read()
@@ -288,16 +303,6 @@ func initCfgStore() (err error) {
 	log.Infof("the path of json configuration storage: %s", path)
 
 	if drivertype == common.CfgDriverDB {
-		//init database
-		cfgs := map[string]interface{}{}
-		if err = LoadFromEnv(cfgs, true); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-		cfgdb := GetDatabaseFromCfg(cfgs)
-		//Initialize the schema.
-		if err = dao.InitDatabase(cfgdb, true); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
 		CfgStore, err = database.NewCfgStore()
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
diff --git a/src/common/dao/base.go b/src/common/dao/base.go
index 5eade0ef9..b9f293359 100644
--- a/src/common/dao/base.go
+++ b/src/common/dao/base.go
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ type Database interface {
 
 // InitClairDB ...
 func InitClairDB(clairDB *models.PostGreSQL) error {
-	//Except for password other information will not be configurable, so keep it hard coded for 1.2.0.
 	p := &pgsql{
 		host:     clairDB.Host,
 		port:     strconv.Itoa(clairDB.Port),
@@ -62,25 +61,26 @@ func InitClairDB(clairDB *models.PostGreSQL) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// InitDatabase initializes the database, there's an optional parm as a flag
-// to indicate whether it should initialize the schema.
-func InitDatabase(database *models.Database, initSchema ...bool) error {
+// UpgradeSchema will call the internal migrator to upgrade schema based on the setting of database.
+func UpgradeSchema(database *models.Database) error {
+	db, err := getDatabase(database)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return db.UpgradeSchema()
+}
+
+// InitDatabase registers the database
+func InitDatabase(database *models.Database) error {
 	db, err := getDatabase(database)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	log.Infof("initializing database: %s", db.String())
+	log.Infof("Registering database: %s", db.String())
 	if err := db.Register(); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	if len(initSchema) > 0 && initSchema[0] {
-		err := db.UpgradeSchema()
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-	}
-
 	version, err := GetSchemaVersion()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ func InitDatabase(database *models.Database, initSchema ...bool) error {
 			SchemaVersion, version.Version)
 	}
 
-	log.Info("initialize database completed")
+	log.Info("Register database completed")
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/src/ui/main.go b/src/ui/main.go
index a0c46baae..ef2b51850 100644
--- a/src/ui/main.go
+++ b/src/ui/main.go
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ func main() {
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("failed to get database configuration: %v", err)
 	}
-	if err := dao.InitDatabase(database, true); err != nil {
+	if err := dao.InitDatabase(database); err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("failed to initialize database: %v", err)
 	}
 	if config.WithClair() {
@@ -151,16 +151,16 @@ func main() {
 
 	syncRegistry := os.Getenv("SYNC_REGISTRY")
 	sync, err := strconv.ParseBool(syncRegistry)
-	if err != nil{
+	if err != nil {
 		log.Errorf("Failed to parse SYNC_REGISTRY: %v", err)
 		//if err set it default to false
-		sync = false;
+		sync = false
 	}
-	if sync{
+	if sync {
 		if err := api.SyncRegistry(config.GlobalProjectMgr); err != nil {
 			log.Error(err)
 		}
-	}else {
+	} else {
 		log.Infof("Because SYNC_REGISTRY set false , no need to sync registry \n")
 	}