diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-cpp.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci-cpp.yaml
index d73d799e33774..1887b4333910d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-cpp.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-cpp.yaml
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.docs.outputs.changed_only == 'no'
         run: |
           echo "Build C++ client library"
-          export CMAKE_ARGS="-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_DYNAMIC_LIB=OFF"
+          export CMAKE_ARGS="-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_DYNAMIC_LIB=OFF -DPYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR=/usr/include/python2.7 -DPYTHON_LIBRARY=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython2.7.so"
           pulsar-client-cpp/docker-build.sh
 
       - name: run c++ tests
diff --git a/build/docker/Dockerfile b/build/docker/Dockerfile
index 013bfdd35da24..26e6a7d4976f3 100644
--- a/build/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/build/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -28,10 +28,11 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     add-apt-repository ppa:openjdk-r/ppa && \
     apt-get update && \
     apt-get install -y tig g++ cmake libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \
-                liblog4cxx-dev libprotobuf-dev libboost-all-dev google-mock libgtest-dev \
-                libjsoncpp-dev libxml2-utils protobuf-compiler wget \
+                liblog4cxx-dev libprotobuf-dev google-mock libgtest-dev \
+                libboost-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-python-dev \
+                libxml2-utils protobuf-compiler wget \
                 curl doxygen openjdk-8-jdk-headless openjdk-11-jdk-headless clang-format-5.0 \
-                gnupg2 golang-1.13-go zip unzip libzstd-dev libsnappy-dev python3-pip
+                gnupg2 golang-1.13-go zip unzip libzstd-dev libsnappy-dev python3-pip libpython-dev
 
 # Compile and install gtest
 RUN cd /usr/src/gtest && cmake . && make && cp libgtest.a /usr/lib
@@ -66,6 +67,7 @@ RUN wget https://artifacts.crowdin.com/repo/deb/crowdin.deb -O crowdin.deb
 RUN dpkg -i crowdin.deb
 
 # Install PIP and PDoc
+RUN wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/2.7/get-pip.py && python get-pip.py && rm get-pip.py
 RUN pip3 install pdoc
 
 # Install Protobuf doc generator (requires Go)
diff --git a/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-build.sh b/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-build.sh
index 31fa5d9d1b31a..b615ae595985f 100755
--- a/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-build.sh
+++ b/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-build.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ ROOT_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
 cd $ROOT_DIR/pulsar-client-cpp
 
 BUILD_IMAGE_NAME="${BUILD_IMAGE_NAME:-apachepulsar/pulsar-build}"
-BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION="${BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION:-ubuntu-16.04}"
+BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION="${BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION:-ubuntu-16.04-py2}"
 
 IMAGE="$BUILD_IMAGE_NAME:$BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION"
 
diff --git a/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-tests.sh b/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-tests.sh
index e5fd3e80969f8..0969c1c4c53f9 100755
--- a/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-tests.sh
+++ b/pulsar-client-cpp/docker-tests.sh
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ ROOT_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
 cd $ROOT_DIR/pulsar-client-cpp
 
 BUILD_IMAGE_NAME="${BUILD_IMAGE_NAME:-apachepulsar/pulsar-build}"
-BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION="${BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION:-ubuntu-16.04}"
+BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION="${BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION:-ubuntu-16.04-py2}"
 
 IMAGE="$BUILD_IMAGE_NAME:$BUILD_IMAGE_VERSION"