Hibernate : Why is it trying to drop/create database on startup?

Place in application.properties/application.yml

spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update

This property can be set with values

1. update (Update the schema if necessary)
2. create (create the schema and destroy previous data)
3. create-drop (create and then destroy the schema at the end of the session)
4. none (disable ddl handling)
5. validate (validate the schema , make no changes to the database)

Look for the hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto setting. Probably you have set it to create-drop.