diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 690e26711be..84d8e69b84e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ stages:
   <<: *dedicated-no-docs-and-no-qa-pull-cache-job
   <<: *use-pg
   variables:
-    CREATE_DB_USER: "true"
+    SETUP_DB: "false"
   script:
     # Manually clone gitlab-test and only seed this project in
     # db/fixtures/development/04_project.rb thanks to SIZE=1 below
@@ -233,7 +233,6 @@ stages:
 .migration-paths: &migration-paths
   <<: *dedicated-no-docs-and-no-qa-pull-cache-job
   variables:
-    CREATE_DB_USER: "true"
     SETUP_DB: "false"
   script:
     - git fetch https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git v9.3.0
diff --git a/scripts/create_mysql_user.sh b/scripts/create_mysql_user.sh
index 286b1325f1d..35f68c581f3 100644
--- a/scripts/create_mysql_user.sh
+++ b/scripts/create_mysql_user.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 mysql --user=root --host=mysql <<EOF
-CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS gitlabhq_test DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
 CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'gitlab'@'%';
 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON gitlabhq_test.* TO 'gitlab'@'%';
 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
diff --git a/scripts/create_postgres_user.sh b/scripts/create_postgres_user.sh
index 8a744df3226..8a049bcd7fb 100644
--- a/scripts/create_postgres_user.sh
+++ b/scripts/create_postgres_user.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 psql -h postgres -U postgres postgres <<EOF
-DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS gitlabhq_test;
-CREATE DATABASE gitlabhq_test;
 CREATE USER gitlab;
-GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE gitlabhq_test TO gitlab;
+GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO gitlab;
 EOF
diff --git a/scripts/prepare_build.sh b/scripts/prepare_build.sh
index 01cb01ed812..d8bcc9f8191 100644
--- a/scripts/prepare_build.sh
+++ b/scripts/prepare_build.sh
@@ -49,16 +49,8 @@ sed -i 's/localhost/redis/g' config/redis.queues.yml
 cp config/redis.shared_state.yml.example config/redis.shared_state.yml
 sed -i 's/localhost/redis/g' config/redis.shared_state.yml
 
-# Some tasks (e.g. db:seed_fu) need to have a properly-configured database
-# user but not necessarily a full schema loaded
-if [ "$CREATE_DB_USER" != "false" ]; then
-    if [ "$GITLAB_DATABASE" = 'postgresql' ]; then
-        . scripts/create_postgres_user.sh
-    else
-        . scripts/create_mysql_user.sh
-    fi
-fi
-
 if [ "$SETUP_DB" != "false" ]; then
     setup_db
+elif getent hosts postgres || getent hosts mysql; then
+    setup_db_user_only
 fi
diff --git a/scripts/utils.sh b/scripts/utils.sh
index 08c33f3f67e..2d2ba115563 100644
--- a/scripts/utils.sh
+++ b/scripts/utils.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,17 @@ retry() {
     return 1
 }
 
+setup_db_user_only() {
+    if [ "$GITLAB_DATABASE" = "postgresql" ]; then
+        . scripts/create_postgres_user.sh
+    else
+        . scripts/create_mysql_user.sh
+    fi
+}
+
 setup_db() {
+    setup_db_user_only
+
     bundle exec rake db:drop db:create db:schema:load db:migrate
 
     if [ "$GITLAB_DATABASE" = "mysql" ]; then