diff --git a/src/server/database.rs b/src/server/database.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38b53f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/server/database.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+use diesel_async::{
+    AsyncMigrationHarness, AsyncPgConnection,
+    pooled_connection::{AsyncDieselConnectionManager, deadpool::Pool},
+};
+use diesel_migrations::{EmbeddedMigrations, MigrationHarness, embed_migrations};
+
+use crate::util::error::{Contextualize, Error, ErrorType};
+
+pub const DB_MIGRATIONS: EmbeddedMigrations = embed_migrations!();
+
+pub type DbPool = Pool<AsyncPgConnection>;
+
+/// Connect to the database using the given URI, and perform migrations
+pub async fn setup<S: Into<String>>(database_uri: S) -> Result<DbPool, Error> {
+    let pool_manager = AsyncDieselConnectionManager::<AsyncPgConnection>::new(database_uri);
+
+    let pool = Pool::builder(pool_manager)
+        .build()
+        // At time of writing only the `NoRuntimeSpecified` error is possible from the builder,
+        // which should only occur when configuring timeouts without a `Runtime`
+        .map_err(|e| ErrorType::Database(e.to_string()))
+        .err_context("Error creating pool for database connections")?;
+
+    tracing::debug!("Establishing connection to database for migrations...");
+
+    let migration_conn = pool
+        .get()
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| ErrorType::Database(e.to_string()))
+        .err_context("Failed to get connection to database")?;
+
+    tracing::debug!("Running migrations...");
+
+    AsyncMigrationHarness::new(migration_conn)
+        .run_pending_migrations(DB_MIGRATIONS)
+        .map_err(|e| ErrorType::Database(e.to_string()))
+        .err_context("Failed to run pending database migrations")?;
+
+    Ok(pool)
+}
diff --git a/src/server/mod.rs b/src/server/mod.rs
index aa12a48..550751f 100644
--- a/src/server/mod.rs
+++ b/src/server/mod.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 pub mod config;
+pub mod database;
 pub mod main;
 
 pub use main::main;