diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index dd58af19..20cf9bea 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,12 +31,12 @@ Once you have Docker Compose installed, you can start the stack on Linux with:
 
 The value of `DNS_ALT_NAMES` must list all the names, as a comma-separated
 list, under which the Puppet server in the stack can be reached from
-agents. It will have `puppet` prepended to it as that name is used by PuppetDB
-to communicate with the Puppet server. The value of `DNS_ALT_NAMES` only has an
-effect the first time you start the stack, as it is placed into the server's SSL
-certificate. If you need to change it after that, you will need to properly
-revoke the server's certificate and restart the stack with the changed
-`DNS_ALT_NAMES` value.
+agents. It will have `puppet` and `puppet.internal` prepended to it as that
+name is used by PuppetDB to communicate with the Puppet server. The value of
+`DNS_ALT_NAMES` only has an effect the first time you start the stack, as it
+is placed into the server's SSL certificate. If you need to change it after
+that, you will need to properly revoke the server's certificate and restart
+the stack with the changed `DNS_ALT_NAMES` value.
 
 When you first start the Puppet Infrastructure, the stack will create a
 `volumes/` directory with a number of sub-directories to store the
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index 9bae94ec..8a2971a5 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -65,12 +65,8 @@ steps:
   name: test_prepare
 
 - powershell: |
-    $domain = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration |
-      Select -ExpandProperty DNSDomain |
-      Select -First 1
     Write-Host 'Writing compose config to disk'
     $content = @"
-    AZURE_DOMAIN=$domain
     VOLUME_ROOT=$ENV:TempVolumeRoot
     "@
     $Utf8NoBomEncoding = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding $False
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 392f1597..efae8803 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -2,26 +2,30 @@ version: '3'
 
 services:
   puppet:
-    hostname: puppet
+    hostname: puppet.internal
     image: puppet/puppetserver
     ports:
       - 8140:8140
     environment:
+      # necessary to set certname and server in puppet.conf, required by
+      # puppetserver ca cli application
+      - PUPPETSERVER_HOSTNAME=puppet.internal
       # DNS_ALT_NAMES must be set before starting the stack the first time,
       # and must list all the names under which the puppetserver can be
-      # reached. 'puppet' must be one of them, otherwise puppetdb won't be
+      # reached. 'puppet.internal' must be one of them, otherwise puppetdb won't be
       # able to get a cert. Add other names as a comma-separated list
-      - DNS_ALT_NAMES=puppet,${DNS_ALT_NAMES:-}
+      - DNS_ALT_NAMES=puppet,puppet.internal,${DNS_ALT_NAMES:-}
       - PUPPERWARE_ANALYTICS_ENABLED=${PUPPERWARE_ANALYTICS_ENABLED:-true}
-      - PUPPETDB_SERVER_URLS=https://puppetdb:8081
+      - PUPPETDB_SERVER_URLS=https://puppetdb.internal:8081
     volumes:
       - ${VOLUME_ROOT:-.}/volumes/code:/etc/puppetlabs/code/
       - ${VOLUME_ROOT:-.}/volumes/puppet:/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/
       - ${VOLUME_ROOT:-.}/volumes/serverdata:/opt/puppetlabs/server/data/puppetserver/
+    dns_search: internal
     networks:
       default:
         aliases:
-         - puppet.${AZURE_DOMAIN:-}
+         - puppet.internal
 
   postgres:
     image: postgres:9.6
@@ -34,14 +38,20 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - ${VOLUME_ROOT:-.}/volumes/puppetdb-postgres/data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
       - ./postgres-custom:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
+    dns_search: internal
+    networks:
+      default:
+        aliases:
+         - postgres.internal
 
   puppetdb:
-    hostname: puppetdb
+    hostname: puppetdb.internal
     image: puppet/puppetdb
     environment:
       - PUPPERWARE_ANALYTICS_ENABLED=${PUPPERWARE_ANALYTICS_ENABLED:-true}
       # This name is an FQDN so the short name puppet doesn't collide outside compose network
-      - PUPPETSERVER_HOSTNAME=puppet.${AZURE_DOMAIN:-}
+      - PUPPETSERVER_HOSTNAME=puppet.internal
+      - PUPPETDB_POSTGRES_HOSTNAME=postgres.internal
       - PUPPETDB_PASSWORD=puppetdb
       - PUPPETDB_USER=puppetdb
     ports:
@@ -52,3 +62,8 @@ services:
       - puppet
     volumes:
       - ${VOLUME_ROOT:-.}/volumes/puppetdb/ssl:/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/
+    dns_search: internal
+    networks:
+      default:
+        aliases:
+         - puppetdb.internal
diff --git a/gem/lib/pupperware/spec_helper.rb b/gem/lib/pupperware/spec_helper.rb
index 2d022f24..57e51193 100644
--- a/gem/lib/pupperware/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/gem/lib/pupperware/spec_helper.rb
@@ -225,11 +225,10 @@ def wait_on_puppetserver_status(seconds = 180, service_name = 'puppet')
     end
   end
 
+  # agent_name is the fully qualified name of the node
   def clean_certificate(agent_name)
-    result = run_command('docker-compose --no-ansi exec -T puppet facter domain')
-    domain = result[:stdout].chomp
-    STDOUT.puts "cleaning cert for #{agent_name}.#{domain}"
-    result = run_command("docker-compose --no-ansi exec -T puppet puppetserver ca clean --certname #{agent_name}.#{domain}")
+    STDOUT.puts "cleaning cert for #{agent_name}"
+    result = run_command("docker-compose --no-ansi exec -T puppet puppetserver ca clean --certname #{agent_name}")
     return result[:status].exitstatus
   end
 
@@ -253,11 +252,10 @@ def run_agent(agent_name, network, server = get_container_hostname(get_service_c
     return result[:status].exitstatus
   end
 
+  # agent_name is the fully qualified name of the node
   def check_report(agent_name)
     pdb_uri = URI::join(get_service_base_uri('puppetdb', 8080), '/pdb/query/v4')
-    result = run_command("docker-compose --no-ansi exec -T puppet facter domain")
-    domain = result[:stdout].chomp
-    body = "{ \"query\": \"nodes { certname = \\\"#{agent_name}.#{domain}\\\" } \" }"
+    body = "{ \"query\": \"nodes { certname = \\\"#{agent_name}\\\" } \" }"
 
     return retry_block_up_to_timeout(120) do
       Net::HTTP.start(pdb_uri.hostname, pdb_uri.port) do |http|
diff --git a/spec/dockerfile_spec.rb b/spec/dockerfile_spec.rb
index b9c91999..c56faa82 100644
--- a/spec/dockerfile_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/dockerfile_spec.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@
   ]
 
   before(:all) do
-    @test_agent = "puppet_test#{Random.rand(1000)}"
+    # append .internal to ensure domain suffix for Docker DNS resolver is used
+    # since search domains are not appended to /etc/resolv.conf
+    @test_agent = "puppet_test#{Random.rand(1000)}.internal"
     @timestamps = []
     status = run_command('docker-compose --no-ansi version')[:status]
     if status.exitstatus != 0