diff --git a/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit.go b/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit.go
index 5cd60f0b3..2b4cdb49b 100644
--- a/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit.go
+++ b/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 // userdata is a helper structure to marshal the userdata configuration.
 type userdata struct {
 	Users             []user     `yaml:"users"`
+	Network           network    `yaml:"network"`
 	Mounts            [][]string `yaml:"mounts"`
 	SSHAuthorizedKeys []string   `yaml:"ssh_authorized_keys,omitempty"`
 }
@@ -39,6 +40,12 @@ type user struct {
 	Shell             string   `yaml:"shell"`
 }
 
+// network is a helper structure to marshal the userdata configuration to configure the network subsystem.
+type network struct {
+	Version int    `yaml:"version"`
+	ID0     interf `yaml:"id0"`
+}
+
 // interf is a helper structure to marshal the userdata configuration to configure a given interface.
 type interf struct {
 	DHCP4 bool `yaml:"dhcp4"`
@@ -66,6 +73,10 @@ func CloudInitUserData(nfsServerName, nfsPath string, publicKeys []string) ([]by
 			SSHAuthorizedKeys: publicKeys,
 			Shell:             "/bin/bash",
 		}},
+		Network: network{
+			Version: 2,
+			ID0:     interf{DHCP4: true},
+		},
 		SSHAuthorizedKeys: publicKeys,
 	}
 	if nfsServerName != "" && nfsPath != "" {
diff --git a/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit_test.go b/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit_test.go
index 33a4a4fdf..67e941668 100644
--- a/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit_test.go
+++ b/operators/pkg/forge/cloudinit_test.go
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ users:
         - tenant-key-1
         - tenant-key-2
       shell: /bin/bash
+network:
+    version: 2
+    id0:
+        dhcp4: true
 mounts:
     - - rook-ceph-nfs-my-nfs-a.rook-ceph.svc.cluster.local:/path
       - /media/mydrive