diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 47c9b66df6d..4424a1435c5 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -521,7 +521,7 @@ muzzle-dep-report:
     CI_USE_TEST_AGENT: "true"
     CI_AGENT_HOST: local-agent
   services:
-    - name: ghcr.io/datadog/dd-apm-test-agent/ddapm-test-agent:v1.24.1
+    - name: ghcr.io/datadog/dd-apm-test-agent/ddapm-test-agent:v1.27.1
       alias: local-agent
       variables:
         LOG_LEVEL: "DEBUG"
diff --git a/.gitlab/check_test_agent_results.sh b/.gitlab/check_test_agent_results.sh
index cfbc8f098be..4daaaec11a6 100755
--- a/.gitlab/check_test_agent_results.sh
+++ b/.gitlab/check_test_agent_results.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ SUMMARY_RESPONSE_CODE=$(echo "$SUMMARY_RESPONSE" | awk 'END {print $NF}')
 
 if [[ SUMMARY_RESPONSE_CODE -eq 200 ]]; then
   echo "APM Test Agent is running. (HTTP 200)"
+elif [[ -n "$CI_USE_TEST_AGENT" ]]; then
+  echo "APM Test Agent failed to start, had an error, or exited early."
+  cat summary_response.txt
+  exit 1
 else
   echo "APM Test Agent is not running and was not used for testing. No checks failed."
   exit 0
diff --git a/dd-trace-core/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/TracerConnectionReliabilityTest.groovy b/dd-trace-core/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/TracerConnectionReliabilityTest.groovy
index c213bb6dc54..96ef08b4a6e 100644
--- a/dd-trace-core/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/TracerConnectionReliabilityTest.groovy
+++ b/dd-trace-core/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/TracerConnectionReliabilityTest.groovy
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ class TracerConnectionReliabilityTest extends DDSpecification {
 
   def startTestAgentContainer() {
     //noinspection GrDeprecatedAPIUsage Use FixedHostPortGenericContainer against deprecation because we need to know the exposed to configure the tracer at start
-    def agentContainer = new FixedHostPortGenericContainer("ghcr.io/datadog/dd-apm-test-agent/ddapm-test-agent:v1.24.1")
+    def agentContainer = new FixedHostPortGenericContainer("ghcr.io/datadog/dd-apm-test-agent/ddapm-test-agent:v1.27.1")
       .withFixedExposedPort(agentContainerPort, DEFAULT_TRACE_AGENT_PORT)
       .withEnv("ENABLED_CHECKS", "trace_count_header,meta_tracer_version_header,trace_content_length")
       .waitingFor(Wait.forHttp("/test/traces"))