It's not that the main servers don't have the files, zypper shows you the "main server url" when it misses the download. It's not showing you what the real url was that you tried to access.

I'm just going by what the README on the mirrorcache  github says.

"Cache hit" means that MirrorCache was able to redirect to proper (the closest) mirror. "Cache miss" means that MirrorCache had to redirect request to the Main Server.
Output below domonstrates a cache miss, so the download request will be redirected to the Main Server (in this case download.opensuse.org):
Then background jobs will collect info about the hottest misses and scan predefined mirrors for presence of these files. Further requests will be redirected to one of the mirrors that has the file:

So perhaps I'm misunderstanding or the readme is wrong but it sounds like it will pull the file from the "Main Server" if it can't find it in its cache. And it will scan mirrors to find the file for future downloads. If it is scanning the mirrors then it should see which ones have it and use one of them. 

On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 10:42 PM William Brown <william.brown@suse.com> wrote:


> On 30 Mar 2022, at 12:54, Ralph Schaffner <neotinker@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 8:59 PM Patrick Shanahan <paka@opensuse.org> wrote:
> * William Brown <william.brown@suse.com> [03-29-22 20:34]:
> > > Does anyone know what is going on with the mirrors?
> >
> > It happens all the time. I don't think anyone really knows.
> >
> >
> > But this is a good reminder for me to stand up a us instance of my mirror to avoid this.
> >
> > >
> > > Neotinker
> >
>
> adding several mirrors to repos will mitigate.
>
> I don't mind adding mirrors manually but in theory I shouldn't have to. They are using mirrorcache. It should be trying at least 2 servers to get the data. A mirror server that is "closest" to me and the "main server" if the mirror doesn't have it. I'd like to think it keeps trying mirrors until it finds it but I guess that doesn't happen.
>
> https://github.com/openSUSE/MirrorCache
>
> I find the fact that the "main server" appears to also not have the files troubling.

It's not that the main servers don't have the files, zypper shows you the "main server url" when it misses the download. It's not showing you what the real url was that you tried to access.


> 
> --
> (paka)Patrick Shanahan       Plainfield, Indiana, USA          @ptilopteri
> http://en.opensuse.org    openSUSE Community Member    facebook/ptilopteri
> Photos: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/piwigo                   paka @ IRCnet oftc
> What sort of day was it?                  A day like all days, filled with
> those events that alter and illuminate our times...

--
Sincerely,

William Brown

Senior Software Engineer,
Identity and Access Management
SUSE Labs, Australia