Basic error on the created notes is that the resolve.conf fails to parse.
in looking at a failed node, the resolve.conf file was poorly created - see below:
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver [an ip address]
search
Note that there's nothing after above "search". I fixed this issue by running the setup script on the Altus host.
Problem is that the generated nodes fail to create well constucted "resolve.conf" files - which then leads to the parse error.