diff --git a/vsts/StartEmulator.sh b/vsts/StartEmulator.sh
index 3e71305093..5bf14d0fca 100644
--- a/vsts/StartEmulator.sh
+++ b/vsts/StartEmulator.sh
@@ -22,8 +22,34 @@ echo "List AVDs:"
 $EMU -list-avds
 
 # Start emulator in background and with no UI (-no-window), as we're only running database tests.
-nohup $EMU -avd ${NAME_EMU} -no-window -no-snapshot -no-audio -no-boot-anim > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+#
+# -dns-server is set explicitly because the emulator otherwise resolves through its own DNS proxy, which forwards to
+# whatever resolvers the host agent happens to have. On the hosted agents that has proven unreliable: lookups of the
+# test hub and provisioning service hostnames intermittently come back as
+#   java.net.UnknownHostException: Unable to resolve host "...": No address associated with hostname
+# for some tests while other tests in the same run resolve the same hostname successfully. Pointing the guest at fixed
+# public resolvers takes the host's resolver configuration out of the picture.
+nohup $EMU -avd ${NAME_EMU} -no-window -no-snapshot -no-audio -no-boot-anim -dns-server 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4 > /dev/null 2>&1 &
 
 $ADB wait-for-device
 $ADB shell 'while [[ -z $(getprop sys.boot_completed) ]]; do sleep 1; done; input keyevent 82'
-$ADB devices
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+$ADB devices
+
+# Logged so that a DNS failure later in the run can be told apart from an emulator that never had working name
+# resolution to begin with. Does not fail the task; the tests report their own failures.
+#
+# ping's exit status is not used to judge DNS, because it also fails when ICMP is simply not allowed out, which is
+# common and harmless here. Only the resolution step is inspected: ping prints the resolved address when the lookup
+# succeeded, and reports an unknown host or bad address when it did not.
+echo "Checking name resolution from inside the emulator:"
+resolutionOutput=$($ADB shell ping -c 1 -W 5 azure-devices-provisioning.net 2>&1)
+echo "${resolutionOutput}"
+
+case "${resolutionOutput}" in
+    *"unknown host"*|*"bad address"*|*"Name or service not known"*|*"Temporary failure in name resolution"*)
+        echo "WARNING: emulator could not resolve azure-devices-provisioning.net. Name resolution is broken in the guest."
+        ;;
+    *)
+        echo "Name resolution succeeded. Any ping failure above is ICMP reachability, not DNS."
+        ;;
+esac
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