diff --git a/distros/ubuntu1504_cmake/zoneminder.postinst b/distros/ubuntu1504_cmake/zoneminder.postinst
index 4d2da7331..82b256e6b 100644
--- a/distros/ubuntu1504_cmake/zoneminder.postinst
+++ b/distros/ubuntu1504_cmake/zoneminder.postinst
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 set -e
 
+. /etc/zm/zm.conf
+
 if [ "$1" = "configure" ]; then
 		chown www-data:root /var/log/zm
 		chown www-data:www-data /var/lib/zm
@@ -15,9 +17,13 @@ if [ "$1" = "configure" ]; then
     # Ensure zoneminder is stopped
     deb-systemd-invoke stop zoneminder.service || exit $?
 
-	echo 'grant lock tables, create, index, alter on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by "zmpass";' | mysql --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf mysql
-    # Run the ZoneMinder update tool
-    zmupdate.pl --nointeractive
+	if [ "$ZM_DB_HOST" = "localhost" ]; then
+		echo 'grant lock tables, create, index, alter on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by "zmpass";' | mysql --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf mysql
+		# Run the ZoneMinder update tool
+		zmupdate.pl --nointeractive
+	else
+		echo "Not doing database upgrade due to remote db server ($ZM_DB_HOST)"
+ 	fi;
 
 fi