diff --git a/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/evaltest.dat b/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/evaltest.dat
index cd514c9a2..f6b893907 100644
--- a/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/evaltest.dat
+++ b/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/evaltest.dat
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+sun::cat /var/log/daemon.log::charon-updown.*connected to charon-systemd::YES
 moon::swanctl --list-sas --ike-id 1 --raw 2> /dev/null::gw.*version=2 state=ESTABLISHED local-host=PH_IP_MOON local-port=4500 local-id=moon.strongswan.org remote-host=PH_IP_SUN remote-port=4500 remote-id=sun.strongswan.org.*child-sas.*net.*reqid=1 state=INSTALLED mode=TUNNEL.*ESP.*local-ts=\[10.1.0.10/32] remote-ts=\[10.2.0.0/16].*local-ts=\[10.1.0.20/32] remote-ts=\[10.2.0.0/16]::YES
 sun::swanctl --list-sas --ike-id 1 --raw 2> /dev/null::gw.*version=2 state=ESTABLISHED local-host=PH_IP_SUN local-port=4500 local-id=sun.strongswan.org remote-host=PH_IP_MOON remote-port=4500 remote-id=moon.strongswan.org.*child-sas.*net.*reqid=1 state=INSTALLED mode=TUNNEL.*ESP.*local-ts=\[10.2.0.0/16] remote-ts=\[10.1.0.10/32].*local-ts=\[10.2.0.0/16] remote-ts=\[10.1.0.20/32]::YES
 alice::ping -c 1 PH_IP_BOB::64 bytes from PH_IP_BOB: icmp_.eq=1::YES
diff --git a/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/hosts/sun/etc/updown.py b/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/hosts/sun/etc/updown.py
index e3b498257..fbe89fcfc 100755
--- a/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/hosts/sun/etc/updown.py
+++ b/testing/tests/route-based/net2net-xfrmi-ike/hosts/sun/etc/updown.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import daemon
 import logging
 from logging.handlers import SysLogHandler
 import subprocess
+import resource
 
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('updownLogger')
@@ -54,6 +55,13 @@ def install_routes(ike_sa):
         subprocess.call(["ip", "route", "add", ts, "dev", ifname_out])
 
 
+# the hard limit (second number) is the value used by python-daemon when closing
+# potentially open file descriptors while daemonizing.  since the default is
+# 524288 on newer systems, this can take quite a while, and due to how this
+# range of FDs is handled internally (as set) it can even trigger the OOM killer
+resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE, (256, 256))
+
+
 # daemonize and run parallel to the IKE daemon
 with daemon.DaemonContext():
     logger.debug("starting Python updown listener")