diff --git a/lib/beaker/host_prebuilt_steps.rb b/lib/beaker/host_prebuilt_steps.rb
index 60b55a02a..06c8d9dda 100644
--- a/lib/beaker/host_prebuilt_steps.rb
+++ b/lib/beaker/host_prebuilt_steps.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ module HostPrebuiltSteps
     SLEEPWAIT = 5
     TRIES = 5
     AMAZON2023_PACKAGES = %w[chrony]
-    RHEL8_PACKAGES = %w[chrony]
+    RHEL8_PACKAGES = %w[chrony iputils] # iputils provides ping. beaker assumes that's present
     FEDORA_PACKAGES = %w[chrony]
     UNIX_PACKAGES = %w[curl ntpdate]
     FREEBSD_PACKAGES = ['curl', 'perl5|perl']