diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index fed85ad27bba45e42759895874b385c71ca63289..edc6efa9a04e2c2d99e8cf97dd0ce316f750ac1f 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ deploy_prod_rabbit:
     - kubeconfig=$(basename $kubekorner_k3s_config)
     # get password from any previous installation
     # if we don't do this the password will get out of sync
-    - kubectl --kubeconfig $kubeconfig get secret --namespace geosphere-test geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq -o jsonpath="{.data.rabbitmq-password}" 2>/dev/null
+    - kubectl --kubeconfig $kubeconfig get secret --namespace geosphere-test geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq -o jsonpath="{.data.rabbitmq-password}" 2>/dev/null || echo ""
     - pw=$(kubectl --kubeconfig $kubeconfig get secret --namespace geosphere-test geosphere-rabbit-rabbitmq -o jsonpath="{.data.rabbitmq-password}" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
     - echo $pw
     - pw=$(echo $pw | base64 -d)