diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
index e5b94bb..b4bb31e 100644
--- a/start.sh
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,31 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-
+set -euo pipefail
 echo "---------------"
 echo "Nexus Dashboard"
 echo "by Aaron Riedel"
 echo "---------------"
-
+echo "performing pre start check"
 # check if necessary variables are set
 [[ -z "${APP_SECRET_KEY}" ]] && echo "APP_SECRET_KEY not set" && exit 1
 [[ -z "${APP_DATABASE_URI}" ]] && echo "APP_DATABASE_URI not set" && exit 1
+# check if client is mounted
+[ ! -d "~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient" ] && echo "LU client not found" && exit 1
+[ ! -d "~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res" ] && echo "LU client is missing res folder" && exit 1
+[ ! -d "~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/locale" ] && echo "LU client is missing locale folder" && exit 1
+# check if brickdb needs to be unzipped
+if [ -f "~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/brickdb.zip" ]; then
+    echo "brickdb.zip found"
+    unzip ~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/brickdb.zip
+    rm ~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/brickdb.zip
+    echo "brickdb.zip unpacked and removed"
+fi
+# rename ~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/CDServer.sqlite
+if [ -f "~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/CDServer.sqlite" ]; then
+    echo "moving CDServer.sqlite to cdclient.sqlite"
+    mv ~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/CDServer.sqlite ~/NexusDashboard/app/luclient/res/cdclient.sqlite
+fi
+cd ~/NexusDashboard
+echo "run database migration"
+flask db upgrade
+echo "start server"
+gunicorn -b :8000 -w 4 wsgi:app
\ No newline at end of file