diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 2259dc43101baa9735d265f8cc22c1d5be7acecf..46784f1c07484f7816af6b2f41c33e3090e53886 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ variables:
    CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE_BASE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-pyinttest/base:latest
    DEPLOY_REF: dev
    MYSQL_IMAGE_NAME: mysql
-   MYSQL_IMAGE_VERSION: 8.0
+   MYSQL_IMAGE_VERSION: "8.0"
 
 stages:
   - setup