diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 6462ca79..74ed7247 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ FROM centos:7.4.1708
 #    echo -e "export http_proxy=$http_proxy\nexport https_proxy=$https_proxy\n\
 #export ftp_proxy=$ftp_proxy" >> /root/.bashrc
 
+RUN echo "http_caching=packages" >> /etc/yum.conf
+
 # username you will docker exec into the container as.
 # It should NOT be your host username so you can easily tell
 # if you are in our out of the container.
diff --git a/centos-mirror-tools/dl_rpms.sh b/centos-mirror-tools/dl_rpms.sh
index 54ff6281..15f1f717 100755
--- a/centos-mirror-tools/dl_rpms.sh
+++ b/centos-mirror-tools/dl_rpms.sh
@@ -251,7 +251,24 @@ download () {
 
 
 # Prime the cache
-${SUDOCMD} yum ${YUMCONFOPT} ${RELEASEVER} makecache
+loop_count=0
+max_loop_count=5
+echo "${SUDOCMD} yum ${YUMCONFOPT} ${RELEASEVER} makecache"
+while ! ${SUDOCMD} yum ${YUMCONFOPT} ${RELEASEVER} makecache ; do
+    # To protect against intermittent 404 errors, we'll retry
+    # a few times.  The suspected issue is pulling repodata
+    # from multiple source that are temporarily inconsistent.
+    loop_count=$((loop_count + 1))
+    if [ $loop_count -gt $max_loop_count ]; then
+        break
+    fi
+    echo "makecache retry: $loop_count"
+
+    # Wipe the inconsistent data from the last try
+    echo "yum ${YUMCONFOPT} ${RELEASEVER} clean all"
+    yum ${YUMCONFOPT} ${RELEASEVER} clean all
+done
+
 
 # Download files
 if [ -s "$rpms_list" ];then
diff --git a/centos-mirror-tools/yum.conf.sample b/centos-mirror-tools/yum.conf.sample
index 11a6ce72..b968a8ae 100644
--- a/centos-mirror-tools/yum.conf.sample
+++ b/centos-mirror-tools/yum.conf.sample
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=23&ref=http://b
 distroverpkg=centos-release
 override_install_langs=en_US.utf8
 tsflags=nodocs
+http_caching=packages
 reposdir=yum.repos.d