diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 48a588dc76dbc5167abe0fd2a9c016c66af9417c..9f1feac7e7a76f2fd0364bfed50323ddab0ab42e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 services:
   - mariadb:10.4
+  - mysql:8.0
 variables:
   DEPLOY_REF: dev
   CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-mysqlbackend/testenv:latest
@@ -62,7 +63,7 @@ unittests:
     - cp config.defaults .config
     - echo 'DATABASE_USER_HOST_LIST="%,"' >> .config
     - echo "MYSQL_USER_PASSWORD=$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" >> .config
-    - echo "MYSQL_HOST=mariadb" >> .config
+    - echo "MYSQL_HOST=mysql" >> .config
     - sleep 10
     - make install
     - ./utils/make_db restore_db tests/example.dump.sql