diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/README.rst b/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/README.rst
index f9187772..394f8879 100644
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/README.rst
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/README.rst
@@ -6,9 +6,11 @@ Create a minimal image based on CentOS
 Use of this element will require 'yum' and 'yum-utils' to be installed on
 Ubuntu and Debian. Nothing additional is needed on Fedora or CentOS.
 
-By default, ``DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES`` is set to enable the
-creation of ``/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[0|1]`` scripts to
-enable DHCP on the ``eth0`` & ``eth1`` interfaces.  If you do not have
-these interfaces, or if you are using something else to setup the
-network such as cloud-init, glean or network-manager, you would want
-to set this to ``0``.
+For CentOS 7, by default, ``DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES`` is set
+to enable the creation of
+``/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[0|1]`` scripts to enable
+DHCP on the ``eth0`` & ``eth1`` interfaces.  If you do not have these
+interfaces, or if you are using something else to setup the network
+such as cloud-init, glean or network-manager, you would want to set
+this to ``0``.  For CentOS 8, this is set to ``0`` by default as the
+system uses NetworkManager by default.
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/environment.d/10-centos-distro-name.bash b/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/environment.d/10-centos-distro-name.bash
index 39449b15..c9fef536 100644
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/environment.d/10-centos-distro-name.bash
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/centos-minimal/environment.d/10-centos-distro-name.bash
@@ -2,5 +2,10 @@ export DISTRO_NAME=centos
 export DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-7}
 
 # by default, enable DHCP configuration of eth0 & eth1 in network
-# scripts.  See yum-minimal for full details
-export DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES=${DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES:-1}
+# scripts for centos 7.  See yum-minimal for full details.  CentOS 8
+# does not come with network-scripts by default so avoid this there.
+if [[ ${DIB_RELEASE} -le 7 ]]; then
+    export DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES=${DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES:-1}
+else
+    export DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES=${DIB_YUM_MINIMAL_CREATE_INTERFACES:-0}
+fi
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/simple-init/post-install.d/80-simple-init b/diskimage_builder/elements/simple-init/post-install.d/80-simple-init
index 3acfba3e..4e219db3 100755
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/simple-init/post-install.d/80-simple-init
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/simple-init/post-install.d/80-simple-init
@@ -16,7 +16,11 @@ case "$DIB_INIT_SYSTEM" in
             if [[ ${DIB_SIMPLE_INIT_NETWORKMANAGER} != 1 ]]; then
                 # NOTE(pabelanger): Glean requires network.service for
                 # these platforms when not using networkmanager
-                systemctl enable network.service
+                if [[ ${DIB_RELEASE} -lt 8 ]]; then
+                    # Not available on Centos 8
+                    # NOTE(ianw) we should evaluate if Fedora needs this
+                    systemctl enable network.service
+                fi
             fi
         elif [[ ${DISTRO_NAME} =~ (opensuse) ]]; then
             # on suse, this is named wicked.service, but it's the same