diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 621f68785..c4bef391b 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,11 +1,5 @@
 language: python
 
-# make sure simplehttp simple verification works (custom /etc/hosts)
-addons:
-  hosts:
-    - le.wtf
-  mariadb: "10.0"
-
 services:
   - rabbitmq
   - mysql
@@ -28,6 +22,12 @@ env:
     - TOXENV=lint
     - TOXENV=cover
 
+# make sure simplehttp simple verification works (custom /etc/hosts)
+addons:
+  hosts:
+    - le.wtf
+  mariadb: "10.0"
+
 install: "travis_retry pip install tox coveralls"
 before_script: '[ "xxx$BOULDER_INTEGRATION" = "xxx" ] || ./tests/boulder-start.sh'
 script: 'travis_retry tox && ([ "xxx$BOULDER_INTEGRATION" = "xxx" ] || (source .tox/$TOXENV/bin/activate && ./tests/boulder-integration.sh))'
diff --git a/tests/boulder-start.sh b/tests/boulder-start.sh
index 8cb7fefce..6ca9e577f 100755
--- a/tests/boulder-start.sh
+++ b/tests/boulder-start.sh
@@ -5,5 +5,10 @@ export GOPATH="${GOPATH:-/tmp/go}"
 
 go get -d github.com/letsencrypt/boulder
 cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/letsencrypt/boulder
+
+if [ "${TRAVIS}" == "true" ]; then
+  ./test/create_db.sh || die "unable to create the boulder database with test/create_db.sh"
+fi
+
 ./start.py &
 # Hopefully start.py bootstraps before integration test is started...