diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd.service b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd.service
index 6a65b7eed1..52f96ef867 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd.service
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/dev-db/etcd/files/etcd.service
@@ -9,5 +9,10 @@ PermissionsStartOnly=true
 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/etcd-pre-exec
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/etcd-bootstrap
 
+Restart=always
+# Set a longish timeout in case this machine isn't behaving
+# nicely and bothering the rest of the cluster
+RestartSec=10s
+
 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target