diff --git a/ci/docker/daml-sdk/Dockerfile b/ci/docker/daml-sdk/Dockerfile
index d8c07e40b34..baffb567e81 100644
--- a/ci/docker/daml-sdk/Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/daml-sdk/Dockerfile
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 FROM openjdk:8u212-alpine
 RUN apk add --no-cache curl bash
 ARG VERSION
+# This is needed to get the DNS requests
+# from Haskell binaries to succeed.
+# Otherwise they fail to even resolve localhost.
+RUN echo 'hosts: files dns' > /etc/nsswitch.conf
 RUN addgroup -S daml && adduser -S daml -G daml
 USER daml
 RUN curl https://get.daml.com | sh -s $VERSION \