diff --git a/cluster/aws/templates/salt-minion.sh b/cluster/aws/templates/salt-minion.sh
index e889445ca02..2fc84579e3d 100755
--- a/cluster/aws/templates/salt-minion.sh
+++ b/cluster/aws/templates/salt-minion.sh
@@ -30,6 +30,18 @@ grains:
   cloud: aws
 EOF
 
+# We set the hostname_override to the full EC2 private dns name
+# we'd like to use EC2 instance-id, but currently the kubelet health-check assumes the name
+# is resolvable, although that check should be going away entirely (#7092)
+if [[ -z "${HOSTNAME_OVERRIDE}" ]]; then
+  HOSTNAME_OVERRIDE=`curl --silent curl http://169.254.169.254/2007-01-19/meta-data/local-hostname`
+fi
+
+if [[ -n "${HOSTNAME_OVERRIDE}" ]]; then
+  cat <<EOF >>/etc/salt/minion.d/grains.conf
+  hostname_override: "${HOSTNAME_OVERRIDE}"
+EOF
+fi
 
 if [[ -n "${DOCKER_OPTS}" ]]; then
   cat <<EOF >>/etc/salt/minion.d/grains.conf