diff --git a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.cray b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.cray
index 5d4fc6d188cebba75cf677daaf36c5e7530d8f59..2e773ec28303059623c46491072138e209f8a6cf 100755
--- a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.cray
+++ b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.cray
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@ top_srcdir=$(cd "${script_dir}/../../.."; pwd)
 . "${script_dir}/utils.sh"
 init_cray1203
 
+# Save time for the person running this script manually:
+if test "x${PE_NETCDF_MODULE_NAME}" = 'xcray-netcdf'; then
+  case $top_srcdir in
+    "${HOME}/"*)
+      echo "ERROR: parallel NetCDF4 tests are known to fail when CDI is built in the user home directory and linked against NetCDF that does not support MPI parallel invocations" >&2
+      exit 1
+  esac
+fi
+
 test -f "${top_srcdir}/configure" || "${top_srcdir}/autogen.sh"
 
 # The configure script does not check the 'lib64' subdirectory, therefore we
diff --git a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.pgi b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.pgi
index 2ffd68aaafad279b67d2aacc876c82e5d4e147bf..3874ce2b75901f3a887977b9977afbc848810aab 100755
--- a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.pgi
+++ b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/test.all.pgi
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@ top_srcdir=$(cd "${script_dir}/../../.."; pwd)
 . "${script_dir}/utils.sh"
 init_pgi2011
 
+# Save time for the person running this script manually:
+if test "x${PE_NETCDF_MODULE_NAME}" = 'xcray-netcdf'; then
+  case $top_srcdir in
+    "${HOME}/"*)
+      echo "ERROR: parallel NetCDF4 tests are known to fail when CDI is built in the user home directory and linked against NetCDF that does not support MPI parallel invocations" >&2
+      exit 1
+  esac
+fi
+
 test -f "${top_srcdir}/configure" || "${top_srcdir}/autogen.sh"
 
 # The configure script does not check the 'lib64' subdirectory, therefore we
diff --git a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/utils.sh b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/utils.sh
index bb68477bb6955fd88a8ab00dfc63627653ead027..c7092679d3b08c700a564b81104f1e8577186e5e 100644
--- a/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/utils.sh
+++ b/.ci/bb/daint-cscs/utils.sh
@@ -103,7 +103,15 @@ init_env ()
 init_cray1203 ()
 {
   init_env
-  switch_for_module craype PrgEnv-cray cce/12.0.3 cray-mpich cray-netcdf
+  switch_for_module craype PrgEnv-cray cce/12.0.3 cray-mpich
+
+  # Build and test against NetCDF that does not support MPI parallel invocations
+  # (parallel NetCDF4 tests are known to fail in this case when run from the
+  # user home directory on Daint):
+  switch_for_module cray-netcdf
+
+  # Uncomment the following line to test against MPI-capable NetCDF:
+  # switch_for_module cray-netcdf-hdf5parallel cray-hdf5-parallel
 
   CC=cc
   CXX=CC
@@ -129,7 +137,15 @@ init_pgi2011 ()
   # the Cray packages and have to make sure that the default versions are
   # unloaded (otherwise, we get various warnings and errors):
   module unload cray-mpich cray-netcdf cray-netcdf-hdf5parallel cray-hdf5 cray-hdf5-parallel
-  switch_for_module craype PrgEnv-pgi/6.0.8 pgi/20.1.1 cray-mpich/7.7.15 cray-netcdf/4.7.4.0 cray-hdf5/1.12.0.0
+  switch_for_module craype PrgEnv-pgi/6.0.8 pgi/20.1.1 cray-mpich/7.7.15
+
+  # Build and test against NetCDF that does not support MPI parallel invocations
+  # (parallel NetCDF4 tests are known to fail in this case when run from the
+  # user home directory on Daint):
+  switch_for_module cray-netcdf/4.7.4.0 cray-hdf5/1.12.0.0
+
+  # Uncomment the following line to test against MPI-capable NetCDF:
+  # switch_for_module cray-netcdf-hdf5parallel/4.7.4.0 cray-hdf5-parallel/1.12.0.0
 
   CC=cc
   CXX=CC