diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 1d6ada53c9a496bd5e8017e64aad5239ef5e6e51..98d45bd4302e6b0eb09eb6063be72234a72c1e85 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ build_debian_package:
     - debian/create-debian-pkg.sh
 
 test_upgrade_debian_package:
-  image: debian:buster
+  image: debian:stretch
   stage: test
   only:
     - tags
@@ -409,6 +409,11 @@ test_upgrade_debian_package:
   dependencies:
      - build_debian_package
   script:
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main" > /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
      - apt-get update
      - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y ssh software-properties-common dirmngr wget curl apt-transport-https postgresql
      - service postgresql start
@@ -436,7 +441,7 @@ test_upgrade_debian_package:
      - apt-get update --allow-unauthenticated
      - apt-get dist-upgrade -y --allow-unauthenticated
      - mv /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d.backup /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
-     - service tomcat9 start
+     - service tomcat8 start
 #we need to wait a bit for tomcat start
      - sleep 15
      - wget http://localhost:8080/minerva/
@@ -447,7 +452,7 @@ test_upgrade_debian_package:
      - test 1 = $(cat configuration.json| grep $version | wc -l)
 
 test_install_debian_package:
-  image: debian:buster
+  image: debian:stretch
   stage: test
   only:
     - tags
@@ -460,6 +465,11 @@ test_install_debian_package:
   dependencies:
      - build_debian_package
   script:
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main" > /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
+     - echo "deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
      - apt-get update
      - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y ssh software-properties-common dirmngr wget curl postgresql
      - service postgresql start
@@ -480,7 +490,7 @@ test_install_debian_package:
      - chmod 0755 /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
      - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --allow-unauthenticated minerva
      - mv /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d.backup /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d 
-     - service tomcat9 start
+     - service tomcat8 start
 #we need to wait a bit for tomcat start
      - sleep 15
      - wget http://localhost:8080/minerva/