diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 754234bf2c60af69486c775fedf86186cb67c97f..678da2003b13b11673128d1e91296e61ae8fdf84 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -81,13 +81,13 @@ test:
       - cd .docker
       - DIR=`pwd`
       - CERTPATH=$DIR"/cert" CAOSDB_TAG=$CAOSDB_TAG docker-compose  up -d
+      # prevent this script from terminating when the return value is non-zero
       - set +e
       - docker-compose -f tester.yml run tester 
       - rc=$?
       - set -e
-      - docker-compose down
-      - docker logs docker_caosdb-server_1 > ../caosdb_log.txt
-      - docker logs docker_sqldb_1 > ../mariadb_log.txt
+      - docker logs docker_caosdb-server_1 &> ../caosdb_log.txt
+      - docker logs docker_sqldb_1 &> ../mariadb_log.txt
       - docker-compose down
       - exit $rc
   artifacts: