diff --git a/tests/test-ironic.sh b/tests/test-ironic.sh
index 9e7876f2a1..d676098d53 100755
--- a/tests/test-ironic.sh
+++ b/tests/test-ironic.sh
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ function wait_for_placement_resources {
     local expected_count=1
     local resource_class="RC0"
 
-    curl -L -o jq https://github.com/stedolan/jq/releases/download/jq-1.5/jq-linux64
+    curl --fail -L -o jq https://github.com/stedolan/jq/releases/download/jq-1.5/jq-linux64
     chmod +x jq
 
     # TODO(mgoddard): switch to Placement OSC plugin, once it exists
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ function wait_for_placement_resources {
         # Fetch provider UUIDs from Placement
         local providers
         args=(
+            --fail
             -sH "X-Auth-Token: $token"
         )
         if [[ "$TLS_ENABLED" = "True" ]]; then
diff --git a/tools/init-runonce b/tools/init-runonce
index ac07c5a724..0c5d898458 100755
--- a/tools/init-runonce
+++ b/tools/init-runonce
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ if ! [ -f "${IMAGE_PATH}/${IMAGE}" ]; then
     IMAGE_PATH='./'
     if ! [ -f "${IMAGE_PATH}/${IMAGE}" ]; then
         echo None found, downloading cirros image.
-        curl -L -o ${IMAGE_PATH}/${IMAGE} ${IMAGE_URL}/${IMAGE}
+        curl --fail -L -o ${IMAGE_PATH}/${IMAGE} ${IMAGE_URL}/${IMAGE}
     fi
 else
     echo Using cached cirros image from the nodepool node.