diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index ed35c8dade228cbd8fc12f2e447bd0b220a16770..3967cce8b4facf45f23fb1cd3a8f235a3c5c6a03 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,10 @@
 #
 
 services:
-  - mariadb:10.4
+  mariadb:
+    image: mariadb:10.4
+    environment:
+      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: caosdb1234
 variables:
   CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/caosdb-mysqlbackend/testenv:latest
   MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: caosdb1234