Problem with empty config during initialization

Trying to deploy multiple Matomo instances in a load balanced environment within a Docker container. When configuring a docker volume to shared location for config.ini.php it works fine if I pre-populate the database information in the [database] section.Any attempt to supply empty or no values in the config file including an empty file result in a DB connection error when loading index.php for the first time. It seems only as if the file does not exist at all will the initial configuration occur. I was hoping that I could deploy a minimal config file and let the application populate the rest during setup but that does not seem to be the case. Any existence of config.ini.php will assume that there should be Database configuration and cause it to try and connect.