diff --git a/modules/nodepool/manifests/init.pp b/modules/nodepool/manifests/init.pp
index e929695e61..090726fbfd 100644
--- a/modules/nodepool/manifests/init.pp
+++ b/modules/nodepool/manifests/init.pp
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ class nodepool (
     'kpartx',
     'qemu-utils',
     'libgmp-dev',         # transitive dep of paramiko
+    # debootstrap is needed for building Debian images
+    'debootstrap',
   ]
 
   package { $packages: