diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 4e604e6d3f6e0b58dfe7bde14fd87a4564dc9c5a..4b5ce1ff7b2eaed5269fcbbd3badc5baa8baf980 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ variables:
   RETRY_FAILED_TESTS_IN_NEW_PROCESS: "true"
   # Run with decomposed databases by default
   DECOMPOSED_DB: "true"
+  GITLAB_ALLOW_SEPARATE_CI_DATABASE: "true"
 
   DOCS_REVIEW_APPS_DOMAIN: "docs.gitlab-review.app"
   DOCS_GITLAB_REPO_SUFFIX: "ee"
diff --git a/.gitlab/ci/memory.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab/ci/memory.gitlab-ci.yml
index 162dd7b316312bba65f9a28baa96e75cf02f8918..efdae0715aae678ba5557465930af28f4e701134 100644
--- a/.gitlab/ci/memory.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/ci/memory.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ memory-on-boot:
     NODE_ENV: "production"
     RAILS_ENV: "production"
     SETUP_DB: "true"
-    GITLAB_ALLOW_SEPARATE_CI_DATABASE: "true"
     MEMORY_ON_BOOT_FILE_PREFIX: "tmp/memory_on_boot_"
     TEST_COUNT: 5
   script:
diff --git a/spec/initializers/check_forced_decomposition_spec.rb b/spec/initializers/check_forced_decomposition_spec.rb
index 011a093b711b73fc5bc8bff4c5bb72db76e617cb..a216f078932b2f790e96f07f9124b92bd628b6f5 100644
--- a/spec/initializers/check_forced_decomposition_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/initializers/check_forced_decomposition_spec.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
     load Rails.root.join('config/initializers/check_forced_decomposition.rb')
   end
 
+  before do
+    stub_env('GITLAB_ALLOW_SEPARATE_CI_DATABASE', nil)
+  end
+
   context 'for production env' do
     before do
       allow(Gitlab).to receive(:dev_or_test_env?).and_return(false)