diff --git a/.gitlab/ci/qa-common/variables.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab/ci/qa-common/variables.gitlab-ci.yml
index d5270088ffff90718d7724f01d1207542eff03c9..0ee5bcc45b519cf6cb934f039130b0ecc7006365 100644
--- a/.gitlab/ci/qa-common/variables.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/ci/qa-common/variables.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -16,4 +16,5 @@ variables:
   QA_OMNIBUS_MR_TESTS: "only-smoke"
   # Retry failed specs in separate process
   QA_RETRY_FAILED_SPECS: "true"
-  GITLAB_HELM_CHART_REF: "b085a68939fa12d40f9ff933c5af35fec209b1cd" # helm chart ref used by test-on-cng pipeline
+  # helm chart ref used by test-on-cng pipeline
+  GITLAB_HELM_CHART_REF: "b085a68939fa12d40f9ff933c5af35fec209b1cd"
diff --git a/.gitlab/ci/qa.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab/ci/qa.gitlab-ci.yml
index b525c0342ed9d772b721054d1b950f8d56be1ffa..9468d958ea1b2866617db744f7961a5a643141e5 100644
--- a/.gitlab/ci/qa.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/ci/qa.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
     RUN_WITH_BUNDLE: "true"  # instructs pipeline to install and run gitlab-qa gem via bundler
     QA_PATH: qa  # sets the optional path for bundler to run from
     DYNAMIC_PIPELINE_YML: package-and-test-pipeline.yml  # yml files are generated by scripts/generate-e2e-pipeline script
+    QA_EXPORT_TEST_METRICS: "true" # Export test metrics directly to influxdb by default
   inherit:
     variables:
       - CHROME_VERSION
diff --git a/scripts/generate-e2e-pipeline b/scripts/generate-e2e-pipeline
index ff56e065126dfc58324fe043f15ab22e88760020..267ef89ff5c9d5876865a27c4fac218a2d487576 100755
--- a/scripts/generate-e2e-pipeline
+++ b/scripts/generate-e2e-pipeline
@@ -41,11 +41,9 @@ variables:
   GITLAB_QA_CACHE_KEY: "$qa_cache_key"
   GITLAB_SEMVER_VERSION: "$(cat VERSION)"
   FEATURE_FLAGS: "${QA_FEATURE_FLAGS}"
-  QA_EXPORT_TEST_METRICS: "${QA_EXPORT_TEST_METRICS:-true}"
   QA_FRAMEWORK_CHANGES: "${QA_FRAMEWORK_CHANGES:-false}"
   QA_RUN_ALL_TESTS: "${QA_RUN_ALL_TESTS:-false}"
   QA_RUN_ALL_E2E_LABEL: "${QA_RUN_ALL_E2E_LABEL:-false}"
-  QA_SAVE_TEST_METRICS: "${QA_SAVE_TEST_METRICS:-false}"
   QA_SUITES: "$QA_SUITES"
   QA_TESTS: "$QA_TESTS"
   KNAPSACK_TEST_FILE_PATTERN: "$KNAPSACK_TEST_FILE_PATTERN"