diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index b9445865bc..b1eb6d61ee 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ jobs:
           ./run_sdk_container -n "${container_name}" \
                   ./build_image --board="${arch}-usr" --group="${channel}" \
                                 --output_root="${CI_CONTAINER_ARTIFACT_ROOT}" \
-                                prodtar container
+                                prodtar container sysext
 
       - name: Build VM image(s)
         shell: bash
diff --git a/ci-automation/image.sh b/ci-automation/image.sh
index 139956970c..09ca5e904f 100644
--- a/ci-automation/image.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/image.sh
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ function _image_build_impl() {
                           --base_sysexts="${base_sysexts_param}" \
                           --output_root="${CONTAINER_IMAGE_ROOT}" \
                           --only_store_compressed \
-                          prodtar container
+                          prodtar container sysext
 
     # copy resulting images + push to buildcache
     local images_out="images/"