diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 8dc056d3ec08c84cd6ebf70a17a6f7c526a882eb..34c9e4fe574aa140b766f4c6844033df41ca4c31 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -46,10 +46,15 @@ tf-apply:
   tags: [build]
   script:
     - export BUILD_DATE=$(TZ=America/Chicago date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)
-    - XDMOD_IMAGES=($(openstack image list --sort-column Name --sort-descending -f value -c Name -c ID | grep -P ' xdmod-\d{14}$' | awk '{print $2}'))
-    - export TF_VAR_image_ohpc="${XDMOD_IMAGES[0]}"
-  #  - export TF_VAR_image_ohpc="xdmod-20230629191611"
-    - echo $TF_VAR_image_ohpc
+    - | 
+      if [ -z $TF_VAR_image_ohpc ];
+      then
+      XDMOD_IMAGES=($(openstack image list --sort-column Name --sort-descending -f value -c Name -c ID | grep -P ' xdmod-\d{14}$' | awk '{print $2}'))
+      export TF_VAR_image_ohpc="${XDMOD_IMAGES[0]}"
+      echo $TF_VAR_image_ohpc
+      else
+      echo "image_ohpc defined as ${TF_VAR_image_ohpc}"
+      fi   
     - export TF_VAR_keypair_name="os-gen-keypair-$BUILD_DATE"
     - terraform apply -auto-approve || terraform destroy -auto-approve