diff --git a/cloudbuild/external.pkr.hcl b/cloudbuild/external.pkr.hcl
index 23d7fa82..6cfeb3d6 100644
--- a/cloudbuild/external.pkr.hcl
+++ b/cloudbuild/external.pkr.hcl
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ build {
       "sudo apt-get -o DPkg::Lock::Timeout=60 install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io build-essential -y",
       "sudo usermod -aG docker $USER",
       "sudo docker version",
+      "sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_instances=64000", # configure inotify for cisco containers
+      "sudo sysctl -p",
     ]
   }
 
diff --git a/cloudbuild/internal.pkr.hcl b/cloudbuild/internal.pkr.hcl
index ba2c5de5..5ce502aa 100644
--- a/cloudbuild/internal.pkr.hcl
+++ b/cloudbuild/internal.pkr.hcl
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ build {
       "sudo apt-get -o DPkg::Lock::Timeout=60 install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io build-essential -y",
       "sudo usermod -aG docker $USER",
       "sudo docker version",
+      "sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_instances=64000", # configure inotify for cisco containers
+      "sudo sysctl -p",
       "echo Pulling containers...",
       "gcloud auth configure-docker us-west1-docker.pkg.dev -q", # configure sudoless docker
       "sudo gcloud auth configure-docker us-west1-docker.pkg.dev -q", # configure docker with sudo