diff --git a/libguestfs.changes b/libguestfs.changes
index 8eeed3f..d9a0f16 100644
--- a/libguestfs.changes
+++ b/libguestfs.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Fri May 28 10:20:30 UTC 2021 - ohering@suse.de
+
+- For unknown reasons the appliance build fails randomly
+  Workaround it by retrying the build once
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Apr 13 13:13:13 UTC 2021 - ohering@suse.de
 
diff --git a/libguestfs.spec b/libguestfs.spec
index f055868..88f4b94 100644
--- a/libguestfs.spec
+++ b/libguestfs.spec
@@ -608,10 +608,14 @@ export HAVE_PACMAN_FALSE="#"
 #Workaround an autotools bug
 make -j1 -C builder index-parse.c
 # 'INSTALLDIRS' ensures that perl libs are installed in the vendor dir instead of the site dir
+build_it() {
 make \
 	INSTALLDIRS=vendor \
 	LD_RUN_PATH= \
-	%{?_smp_mflags}
+	"$@"
+}
+
+build_it %{?_smp_mflags} || build_it
 
 %install
 %makeinstall \