diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/DownloadManager.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/DownloadManager.java
index 65ef8d2f8f7b5d..0bfdf540aba5eb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/DownloadManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/DownloadManager.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
@@ -381,7 +382,9 @@ private boolean shouldRetryDownload(IOException e, int attempt) {
   }
 
   private boolean isRetryableException(Throwable e) {
-    return e instanceof ContentLengthMismatchException || e instanceof SocketException;
+    return e instanceof ContentLengthMismatchException
+        || e instanceof SocketException
+        || e instanceof UnknownHostException;
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/HttpConnector.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/HttpConnector.java
index 20261c1d5d81e0..ebcbf15aa11e69 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/HttpConnector.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/HttpConnector.java
@@ -158,7 +158,9 @@ URLConnection connect(
         } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
           String message = "Unknown host: " + e.getMessage();
           eventHandler.handle(Event.progress(message));
-          throw new UnrecoverableHttpException(message);
+          IOException httpException = new UnrecoverableHttpException(message);
+          httpException.addSuppressed(e);
+          throw httpException;
         } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
           // This will happen if the user does something like specify a port greater than 2^16-1.
           throw new UnrecoverableHttpException(e.getMessage());