diff --git a/pkg/beyla/config.go b/pkg/beyla/config.go
index f90492348..30e8f6fd5 100644
--- a/pkg/beyla/config.go
+++ b/pkg/beyla/config.go
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ var DefaultConfig = Config{
 			Enable:               kubeflags.EnabledDefault,
 			InformersSyncTimeout: 30 * time.Second,
 		},
+		HostID: HostIDConfig{
+			FetchTimeout: 500 * time.Millisecond,
+		},
 	},
 	Routes:       &transform.RoutesConfig{Unmatch: transform.UnmatchHeuristic},
 	NetworkFlows: defaultNetworkConfig,
@@ -192,6 +195,14 @@ type Attributes struct {
 	Kubernetes transform.KubernetesDecorator `yaml:"kubernetes"`
 	InstanceID traces.InstanceIDConfig       `yaml:"instance_id"`
 	Select     attributes.Selection          `yaml:"select"`
+	HostID     HostIDConfig                  `yaml:"host_id"`
+}
+
+type HostIDConfig struct {
+	// Override allows overriding the reported host.id in Beyla
+	Override string `yaml:"override" env:"BEYLA_HOST_ID"`
+	// HostIDFetchTimeout specifies the timeout for trying to fetch the HostID from diverse Cloud Providers
+	FetchTimeout time.Duration `yaml:"fetch_timeout" env:"BEYLA_HOST_ID_FETCH_TIMEOUT"`
 }
 
 type ConfigError string
diff --git a/pkg/beyla/config_test.go b/pkg/beyla/config_test.go
index 3bf2339ab..e280d6179 100644
--- a/pkg/beyla/config_test.go
+++ b/pkg/beyla/config_test.go
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ attributes:
     informers_sync_timeout: 30s
   instance_id:
     dns: true
+  host_id:
+    override: the-host-id
+    fetch_timeout: 4s
   select:
     beyla.network.flow:
       include: ["foo", "bar"]
@@ -166,6 +169,10 @@ network:
 				Enable:               kubeflags.EnabledTrue,
 				InformersSyncTimeout: 30 * time.Second,
 			},
+			HostID: HostIDConfig{
+				Override:     "the-host-id",
+				FetchTimeout: 4 * time.Second,
+			},
 			Select: attributes.Selection{
 				attributes.BeylaNetworkFlow.Section: attributes.InclusionLists{
 					Include: []string{"foo", "bar"},
diff --git a/pkg/components/beyla.go b/pkg/components/beyla.go
index bd4b232aa..93704623e 100644
--- a/pkg/components/beyla.go
+++ b/pkg/components/beyla.go
@@ -131,7 +131,11 @@ func buildCommonContextInfo(
 
 	attributeGroups(config, ctxInfo)
 
-	ctxInfo.FetchHostID(ctx)
+	if config.Attributes.HostID.Override == "" {
+		ctxInfo.FetchHostID(ctx, config.Attributes.HostID.FetchTimeout)
+	} else {
+		ctxInfo.HostID = config.Attributes.HostID.Override
+	}
 
 	return ctxInfo
 }
diff --git a/pkg/internal/pipe/global/context.go b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/context.go
index 5e526fc74..a1a7a077c 100644
--- a/pkg/internal/pipe/global/context.go
+++ b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/context.go
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ import (
 // ContextInfo stores some context information that must be shared across some nodes of the
 // processing graph.
 type ContextInfo struct {
-	// HostID of the host running Beyla
+	// HostID of the host running Beyla. Unless testing environments, this value must be
+	// automatically set after invoking FetchHostID
 	HostID string
 	// AppO11y stores context information that is only required for application observability.
 	// Its values must be initialized by the App O11y code and shouldn't be accessed from the
diff --git a/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id.go b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id.go
index e3e91631e..2821d3ed8 100644
--- a/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id.go
+++ b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log/slog"
 	"os"
+	"time"
 
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/detectors/aws/ec2"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/detectors/azure/azurevm"
@@ -16,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 	v1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 )
 
-type hostIDFetcher func(context.Context) (string, error)
+type hostIDFetcher func(context.Context, time.Duration) (string, error)
 
 type fetcher struct {
 	name  string
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ func cilog() *slog.Logger {
 // This process is known to fail when Beyla runs inside a Kubernetes Pod out of the cloud providers
 // mentioned in (1). In that case, the host.id will be later set to the full hostname.
 // This method must be invoked once the ContextInfo object is completely initialized
-func (ci *ContextInfo) FetchHostID(ctx context.Context) {
+func (ci *ContextInfo) FetchHostID(ctx context.Context, timeout time.Duration) {
 	log := cilog().With("func", "fetchHostID")
 	fetchers := []fetcher{
 		{name: "AWS", fetch: ec2HostIDFetcher},
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@ func (ci *ContextInfo) FetchHostID(ctx context.Context) {
 		log := log.With("fetcher", f.name)
 		log.Debug("trying to fetch host ID")
 		var id string
-		if id, err = f.fetch(ctx); err == nil {
+		if id, err = f.fetch(ctx, timeout); err == nil {
 			log.Info("got host ID", "hostID", id)
 			ci.HostID = id
 			return
@@ -64,22 +65,39 @@ func (ci *ContextInfo) FetchHostID(ctx context.Context) {
 	}
 }
 
-func azureHostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
-	return detectHostID(ctx, azurevm.New())
+func azureHostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context, timeout time.Duration) (string, error) {
+	return detectHostID(ctx, timeout, azurevm.New())
 }
 
-func gcpHostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
-	return detectHostID(ctx, gcp.NewDetector())
+func gcpHostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context, timeout time.Duration) (string, error) {
+	return detectHostID(ctx, timeout, gcp.NewDetector())
 }
 
-func ec2HostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
-	return detectHostID(ctx, ec2.NewResourceDetector())
+func ec2HostIDFetcher(ctx context.Context, timeout time.Duration) (string, error) {
+	return detectHostID(ctx, timeout, ec2.NewResourceDetector())
 }
 
-func detectHostID(ctx context.Context, detector resource.Detector) (string, error) {
-	res, err := detector.Detect(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
+func detectHostID(ctx context.Context, timeout time.Duration, detector resource.Detector) (string, error) {
+	// passing a cancellable context to the detector.Detect(ctx) does not always
+	// end the connection prematurely, so we wrap its invocation into a goroutine
+	cctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, timeout)
+	defer cancel()
+	resCh := make(chan *resource.Resource, 1)
+	errCh := make(chan error, 1)
+	go func() {
+		if res, err := detector.Detect(ctx); err != nil {
+			errCh <- err
+		} else {
+			resCh <- res
+		}
+	}()
+	var res *resource.Resource
+	select {
+	case res = <-resCh: // continue!
+	case err := <-errCh:
 		return "", err
+	case <-cctx.Done():
+		return "", errors.New("timed out waiting for host ID connection")
 	}
 	for _, attr := range res.Attributes() {
 		if attr.Key == semconv.HostIDKey {
@@ -89,7 +107,7 @@ func detectHostID(ctx context.Context, detector resource.Detector) (string, erro
 	return "", fmt.Errorf("can't find host.id in %v", res.Attributes())
 }
 
-func (ci *ContextInfo) kubeNodeFetcher(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
+func (ci *ContextInfo) kubeNodeFetcher(ctx context.Context, _ time.Duration) (string, error) {
 	if !ci.K8sInformer.IsKubeEnabled() {
 		return "", errors.New("kubernetes is not enabled")
 	}
@@ -130,7 +148,7 @@ func (ci *ContextInfo) kubeNodeFetcher(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
 	return nodes.Items[0].Status.NodeInfo.MachineID, nil
 }
 
-func linuxLocalMachineIDFetcher(_ context.Context) (string, error) {
+func linuxLocalMachineIDFetcher(_ context.Context, _ time.Duration) (string, error) {
 	if result, err := os.ReadFile("/etc/machine-id"); err == nil || len(result) == 0 {
 		return string(bytes.TrimSpace(result)), nil
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id_test.go b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fe47f65b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/internal/pipe/global/host_id_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package global
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestFetchTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	ctxInfo := ContextInfo{}
+	start := time.Now()
+	ctxInfo.FetchHostID(context.Background(), time.Millisecond)
+	elapsed := time.Since(start)
+
+	assert.Less(t, elapsed, time.Second)
+}