diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index b7c78ec80ac70e215a7dd44dd7b5a43d8595afd1..24c38e5aee26be4ca144edc723b0a28a9737fbda 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -81,13 +81,21 @@ 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=$?
-      - docker-compose  down
+      - set -e
+      - docker logs docker_caosdb-server_1 &> ../caosdb_log.txt
+      - docker logs docker_sqldb_1 &> ../mariadb_log.txt
+      - docker-compose down
       - exit $rc
   artifacts:
     paths:
-    - /var/lib/docker/containers/*/*.log
+      - caosdb_log.txt
+      - mariadb_log.txt
+        #when: on_failure
+    expire_in: 1 week
 
 build-testenv:
   tags: [notls]