diff --git a/app/models/ci/build.rb b/app/models/ci/build.rb
index 86569f9a9c3..6f2b3543493 100644
--- a/app/models/ci/build.rb
+++ b/app/models/ci/build.rb
@@ -801,16 +801,12 @@ module Ci
         variables.append(key: "CI_COMMIT_TAG", value: ref) if tag?
         variables.append(key: "CI_PIPELINE_TRIGGERED", value: 'true') if trigger_request
         variables.append(key: "CI_JOB_MANUAL", value: 'true') if action?
-        variables.append(key: "CI_NODE_INDEX", value: node_index.to_s) if self.options&.include?(:parallel)
+        variables.append(key: "CI_NODE_INDEX", value: self.options[:instance].to_s) if self.options&.include?(:instance)
         variables.append(key: "CI_NODE_TOTAL", value: (self.options&.dig(:parallel) || 1).to_s)
         variables.concat(legacy_variables)
       end
     end
 
-    def node_index
-      name.match(%r{(\d+)/\d+$}).captures[0]
-    end
-
     def gitlab_version_info
       @gitlab_version_info ||= Gitlab::VersionInfo.parse(Gitlab::VERSION)
     end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer.rb b/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer.rb
index 55efc7439c1..fc1efb67560 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer.rb
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ module Gitlab
               if config[:parallel]
                 total = config[:parallel]
                 names = parallelize_job_names(name, total)
-                parallelized_jobs[name] = names
-                Hash[names.collect { |job_name| [job_name.to_sym, config.merge(name: job_name)] }]
+                parallelized_jobs[name] = names.map(&:first)
+                Hash[names.collect { |job_name, index| [job_name.to_sym, config.merge(name: job_name, instance: index)] }]
               else
                 { name => config }
               end
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ module Gitlab
             jobs = []
 
             total.times do |idx|
-              jobs << "#{name} #{idx + 1}/#{total}"
+              jobs << ["#{name} #{idx + 1}/#{total}", idx + 1]
             end
 
             jobs
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor.rb b/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor.rb
index 4977fa2ae24..63b55c57913 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor.rb
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ module Gitlab
             environment: job[:environment],
             retry: job[:retry],
             parallel: job[:parallel],
+            instance: job[:instance],
             start_in: job[:start_in]
           }.compact }
       end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer_spec.rb
index 5890d4f193c..f1096cd3931 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer_spec.rb
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ require 'fast_spec_helper'
 
 describe Gitlab::Ci::Config::Normalizer do
   let(:job_name) { :rspec }
-  let(:job_config) { { script: 'rspec', parallel: 5 } }
+  let(:job_config) { { script: 'rspec', parallel: 5, name: 'rspec' } }
   let(:config) { { job_name => job_config } }
 
   describe '.normalize_jobs' do
@@ -13,14 +13,18 @@ describe Gitlab::Ci::Config::Normalizer do
     end
 
     it 'has parallelized jobs' do
-      job_names = described_class.send(:parallelize_job_names, job_name, 5).map(&:to_sym)
+      job_names = described_class.send(:parallelize_job_names, job_name, 5).map { |job_name, index| job_name.to_sym }
 
       is_expected.to include(*job_names)
     end
 
+    it 'sets job instance in options' do
+      expect(subject.values).to all(include(:instance))
+    end
+
     it 'parallelizes jobs with original config' do
       original_config = config[job_name].except(:name)
-      configs = subject.values.map { |config| config.except(:name) }
+      configs = subject.values.map { |config| config.except(:name, :instance) }
 
       expect(configs).to all(eq(original_config))
     end
@@ -30,7 +34,7 @@ describe Gitlab::Ci::Config::Normalizer do
     subject { described_class.send(:parallelize_job_names, job_name, 5) }
 
     it 'returns parallelized names' do
-      is_expected.to all(match(%r{#{job_name} \d+/\d+}))
+      expect(subject.map(&:first)).to all(match(%r{#{job_name} \d+/\d+}))
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor_spec.rb
index 4882087fcd3..dcfd54107a3 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/ci/yaml_processor_spec.rb
@@ -657,9 +657,17 @@ module Gitlab
           it 'returns parallelized jobs' do
             config_processor = Gitlab::Ci::YamlProcessor.new(config)
             builds = config_processor.stage_builds_attributes('test')
+            build_options = builds.map { |build| build[:options] }
 
             expect(builds.size).to eq(5)
-            expect(builds.map { |build| build[:options] }).to all(include(parallel: parallel))
+            expect(build_options).to all(include(:instance, parallel: parallel))
+          end
+
+          it 'does not have the original job' do
+            config_processor = Gitlab::Ci::YamlProcessor.new(config)
+            builds = config_processor.stage_builds_attributes('test')
+
+            expect(builds).not_to include(:rspec)
           end
         end
       end
diff --git a/spec/models/ci/build_spec.rb b/spec/models/ci/build_spec.rb
index 41c3c37a7f2..957219b3985 100644
--- a/spec/models/ci/build_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/ci/build_spec.rb
@@ -2348,6 +2348,7 @@ describe Ci::Build do
 
       before do
         build.options[:parallel] = total
+        build.options[:instance] = index
         build.name = "#{build.name} #{index}/#{total}"
       end
 
@@ -2470,31 +2471,6 @@ describe Ci::Build do
         end
       end
     end
-
-    describe '#node_index' do
-      subject { build.send(:node_index) }
-      let(:index) { 4 }
-
-      context 'when build has only one index' do
-        before do
-          build.name = "#{build.name} #{index}/5"
-        end
-
-        it 'returns the index' do
-          expect(subject).to eq(index.to_s)
-        end
-      end
-
-      context 'when build has more than one one index' do
-        before do
-          build.name = "test_build 1/3 #{index}/5"
-        end
-
-        it 'returns the last index' do
-          expect(subject).to eq(index.to_s)
-        end
-      end
-    end
   end
 
   describe '#scoped_variables' do