diff --git a/build/dev/docker-compose.yaml b/build/dev/docker-compose.yaml
index 8771f0ae00..85b2741c82 100644
--- a/build/dev/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/build/dev/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ services:
     image: cockroachdb/cockroach:v24.1.3
     entrypoint: /db-entrypoint.sh
     # 128MB limits allow larger numbers of nodes on a single machine
-    command: /cockroach/cockroach.sh start --insecure --join=db1.uss1.localutm --cache=128MiB --max-sql-memory=128MiB
+    command: /cockroach/cockroach.sh start --insecure --join=db1.uss1.localutm --cache=128MiB --max-sql-memory=128MiB --locality=uss=${USS_IDX:?},node=${USS_IDX:?}-${USS_NODE_IDX:?}
     volumes:
       - $PWD/startup/db-entrypoint.sh:/db-entrypoint.sh:ro
     profiles: [crdb]
@@ -66,11 +66,14 @@ services:
     image: cockroachdb/cockroach:v24.1.3
     profiles: [bootstrap-crdb]
     depends_on: [crdb]
+    # The entrypoint below sets the CRDB zones to have as many replicas as there are USSs (for all tables), combined with the fact that CRDB will try to distribute replicas uniformly over zones (which are defined by locality), this ensures that each USS has at least a replica.
+    # On a real production deployment such a configuration would be made to meet the survivability objectives (https://interuss.github.io/dss/latest/operations/survivability-crdb).
     entrypoint: >
       sh -c "
         out=$$(/cockroach/cockroach.sh init --insecure --host=db1.uss1.localutm 2>&1);
         if [ $$? -eq 0 ]; then
           echo "$$out";
+          /cockroach/cockroach.sh sql --insecure --host=db1.uss1.localutm -e 'ALTER RANGE default CONFIGURE ZONE USING num_replicas = ${NUM_USS:?};';
           exit 0;
         fi;
         echo "$$out";
diff --git a/build/dev/run_locally.sh b/build/dev/run_locally.sh
index 383cbb75c1..8f5e0a1149 100755
--- a/build/dev/run_locally.sh
+++ b/build/dev/run_locally.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ fi
 
 cd "${BASEDIR}" || exit 1
 
-NUM_USS=${NUM_USS:-2}
+export NUM_USS=${NUM_USS:-2}
 NUM_NODES=${NUM_NODES:-1}
 DB_TYPE=${DB_TYPE:-crdb}