diff --git a/tasks/Debian.yml b/tasks/Debian.yml
index db8a3bb..88f9c4b 100644
--- a/tasks/Debian.yml
+++ b/tasks/Debian.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,26 @@
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2020 Open Networking Foundation <support@opennetworking.org>
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
+# network may not be ready for unbound to bind to a specific IP address, so
+# wait for that
+#  docs: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/
+
+- name: Create a directory for reconfiguring unbound via systemd
+  file:
+    path: "/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d"
+    state: directory
+    owner: root
+    group: root
+    mode: "0644"
+
+- name: Configure systemd unit to wait until network is online to start unbound
+  copy:
+    src: "network_online.conf"
+    dest: "/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/network_online.conf"
+    owner: root
+    group: root
+    mode: "0644"
+
 - name: Install unbound packages (Debian)
   apt:
     name: "unbound"