diff --git a/my_deploy.sh b/my_deploy.sh
index 8d2e733d462ae743c7187eb9b6a58d7da14033a7..2dcd6b6a7b08e5e27f3cada109ebafc2ad3e1da5 100755
--- a/my_deploy.sh
+++ b/my_deploy.sh
@@ -80,11 +80,11 @@ export TFS_COMPONENTS="context device pathcomp service slice nbi webui"
 #   To manage QKD Apps, "service" requires "qkd_app" to be deployed
 #   before "service", thus we "hack" the TFS_COMPONENTS environment variable prepending the
 #   "qkd_app" only if "service" is already in TFS_COMPONENTS, and re-export it.
-#if [[ "$TFS_COMPONENTS" == *"service"* ]]; then
-#    BEFORE="${TFS_COMPONENTS% service*}"
-#    AFTER="${TFS_COMPONENTS#* service}"
-#    export TFS_COMPONENTS="${BEFORE} qkd_app service ${AFTER}"
-#fi
+if [[ "$TFS_COMPONENTS" == *"service"* ]]; then
+    BEFORE="${TFS_COMPONENTS% service*}"
+    AFTER="${TFS_COMPONENTS#* service}"
+    export TFS_COMPONENTS="${BEFORE} qkd_app service ${AFTER}"
+fi
 
 # Uncomment to activate Load Generator
 #export TFS_COMPONENTS="${TFS_COMPONENTS} load_generator"
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ export CRDB_DEPLOY_MODE="single"
 export CRDB_DROP_DATABASE_IF_EXISTS=""
 
 # Disable flag for re-deploying CockroachDB from scratch.
-export CRDB_REDEPLOY=""
+export CRDB_REDEPLOY="YES"
 
 
 # ----- NATS -------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/service/Dockerfile b/src/service/Dockerfile
index 54cc46b9679f3f6e32a4d81c028a2879ebf0572f..8056b6fa4ff09ed083f619ebb590bdb5915e6da7 100644
--- a/src/service/Dockerfile
+++ b/src/service/Dockerfile
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ RUN python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
 RUN python3 -m pip install --upgrade setuptools wheel
 RUN python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip-tools
 
-# Install Flask
-RUN python3 -m pip install Flask
+# Install Flask globally
+RUN python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
+RUN python3 -m pip install flask
 
 # Get common Python packages
 # Note: this step enables sharing the previous Docker build steps among all the Python components
diff --git a/src/tests/tools/mock_qkd_nodes/start.sh b/src/tests/tools/mock_qkd_nodes/start.sh
index cf7f340a35bd173ebcc08bff3825fc42a9d8f6ee..7dfd2372de879f9c2aba6a6ad16d8508d2855931 100755
--- a/src/tests/tools/mock_qkd_nodes/start.sh
+++ b/src/tests/tools/mock_qkd_nodes/start.sh
@@ -15,14 +15,16 @@
 
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 
+# Ensure the local bin directory is in the PATH
+export PATH=$PATH:/home/gitlab-runner/.local/bin
+
 # Function to kill all background processes
 killbg() {
-    for p in "${pids[@]}"; do
-        kill "$p" 2>/dev/null
+    for p in "${pids[@]}" ; do
+        kill "$p" 2>/dev/null;
     done
 }
 
-# Trap exit and ensure cleanup of Flask processes
 trap killbg EXIT
 pids=()