diff --git a/bin/deploy b/bin/deploy
index 11a3c594..3e7b0145 100755
--- a/bin/deploy
+++ b/bin/deploy
@@ -9,14 +9,4 @@ set -o errtrace -o errexit -o nounset -o pipefail
 
 git pull
 ./bin/docker_restart
-
-echo "waiting for backend to come up..."
-attempts=0
-while [[ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost:7000/admin/token)" != "200" ]]; do
-  if [[ "$attempts" -gt "100" ]]; then
-    >&2 echo "ERROR: Server not up after 100 attempts. There is probably a problem"
-    exit 1
-  fi
-  attempts=$(( attempts + 1 ))
-  sleep 1
-done
+./bin/wait_for_server_to_be_up
diff --git a/bin/wait_for_server_to_be_up b/bin/wait_for_server_to_be_up
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..6c7cd055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/wait_for_server_to_be_up
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+function error_handler() {
+  >&2 echo "Exited with BAD EXIT CODE '${2}' in ${0} script at line: ${1}."
+  exit "$2"
+}
+trap 'error_handler ${LINENO} $?' ERR
+set -o errtrace -o errexit -o nounset -o pipefail
+
+max_attempts="${1:-}"
+if [[ -z "$max_attempts" ]]; then
+  max_attempts=100
+fi
+
+echo "waiting for backend to come up..."
+attempts=0
+while [[ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost:7000/admin/token)" != "200" ]]; do
+  if [[ "$attempts" -gt "$max_attempts" ]]; then
+    >&2 echo "ERROR: Server not up after $max_attempts attempts. There is probably a problem"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  attempts=$(( attempts + 1 ))
+  sleep 1
+done