diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 3967cce8b4facf45f23fb1cd3a8f235a3c5c6a03..08d469b7f508fa57ce911c7fb92114c7d6a982fd 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -20,10 +20,7 @@
 #
 
 services:
-  mariadb:
-    image: mariadb:10.4
-    environment:
-      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: caosdb1234
+  - mariadb:10.4
 variables:
   CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/caosdb-mysqlbackend/testenv:latest
   MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: caosdb1234
@@ -54,6 +51,7 @@ unittests:
     - echo 'DATABASE_USER_HOST_LIST="%,"' >> .config
     - echo "MYSQL_USER_PASSWORD=$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" >> .config
     - echo "MYSQL_HOST=mariadb" >> .config
+    - sleep 60
     - make install
     - ./utils/make_db restore_db tests/example.dump.sql
     - ./tests/test_utils.sh