diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index b578ff579e..35389cb0fe 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ toolchain.launcher.jvmargs=-Xmx2g -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOf
 
 org.gradle.parallel=true
 
+# enable Gradle's Task Cache.  worst case:
+# > rm -rf ~/.gradle/caches/build-cache-1
+org.gradle.caching=true
+
 # JDK auto-detection is not quite ready yet in Gradle 6.7.
 # On Fedora in particular, if you have the package java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless-1.8.0.265.b01-1.fc32.x86_64 installed,
 # Gradle will look for the Java binaries in /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.265.b01-1.fc32.x86_64/bin/java
diff --git a/gradle/java-module.gradle b/gradle/java-module.gradle
index e6dec22956..0eb3896931 100644
--- a/gradle/java-module.gradle
+++ b/gradle/java-module.gradle
@@ -358,6 +358,8 @@ jar {
 				'Hibernate-JpaVersion': project.jpaVersion.name,
 
 				// BND Plugin instructions (for OSGi):
+				'-reproducible': true,
+				'-noextraheaders': true,
 				'Bundle-Name': project.name,
 				'Bundle-SymbolicName': project.java9ModuleName,
 				'Bundle-Vendor': 'Hibernate.org',
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 1f3fdbc528..7665b0fa93 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.7.1-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.9-all.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/hibernate-core/hibernate-core.gradle b/hibernate-core/hibernate-core.gradle
index 6e7016e0d2..15ca8451ee 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/hibernate-core.gradle
+++ b/hibernate-core/hibernate-core.gradle
@@ -233,10 +233,14 @@ task copyBundleResources (type: Copy) {
     }
 }
 
-processTestResources.dependsOn copyBundleResources
+processTestResources {
+    dependsOn copyBundleResources
+    duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.WARN
+}
 
 sourcesJar {
     duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.EXCLUDE
+
 }
 
 task testJar(type: Jar, dependsOn: testClasses) {
diff --git a/hibernate-orm-build/src/main/java/org/hibernate/orm/antlr/GeneratorTask.java b/hibernate-orm-build/src/main/java/org/hibernate/orm/antlr/GeneratorTask.java
index c1dbe37e48..2ab50e96c4 100644
--- a/hibernate-orm-build/src/main/java/org/hibernate/orm/antlr/GeneratorTask.java
+++ b/hibernate-orm-build/src/main/java/org/hibernate/orm/antlr/GeneratorTask.java
@@ -14,13 +14,17 @@ import org.gradle.api.DefaultTask;
 import org.gradle.api.file.Directory;
 import org.gradle.api.file.RegularFile;
 import org.gradle.api.provider.Provider;
+import org.gradle.api.tasks.CacheableTask;
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.InputFile;
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.OutputDirectory;
+import org.gradle.api.tasks.PathSensitive;
+import org.gradle.api.tasks.PathSensitivity;
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskAction;
 
 /**
  * @author Steve Ebersole
  */
+@CacheableTask
 public abstract class GeneratorTask extends DefaultTask {
 	private final Provider<RegularFile> grammarFile;
 	private final Provider<Directory> outputDirectory;
@@ -34,6 +38,7 @@ public abstract class GeneratorTask extends DefaultTask {
 	}
 
 	@InputFile
+	@PathSensitive( PathSensitivity.RELATIVE )
 	public Provider<RegularFile> getGrammarFile() {
 		return grammarFile;
 	}
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index 69f97a3a2a..704e1b116f 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ if ( !JavaVersion.current().java8Compatible ) {
     throw new GradleException( "Gradle must be run with Java 8 or later" )
 }
 
+buildCache {
+    local { enabled = true }
+    remote(HttpBuildCache) { enabled = false }
+}
+
 gradle.ext.baselineJavaVersion = JavaLanguageVersion.of( 8 )
 
 // Gradle does bytecode transformation on tests.
diff --git a/tooling/metamodel-generator/hibernate-jpamodelgen.gradle b/tooling/metamodel-generator/hibernate-jpamodelgen.gradle
index 41b1b3f63a..e47e8fd02a 100644
--- a/tooling/metamodel-generator/hibernate-jpamodelgen.gradle
+++ b/tooling/metamodel-generator/hibernate-jpamodelgen.gradle
@@ -59,7 +59,9 @@ task jaxb {
                 package: 'org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.xml.jaxb',
                 extension: 'true'
         ) {
-            schema  ( dir: xsdDir.path, includes: "*.xsd" )
+            project.ant.arg line: '-no-header'
+            project.ant.arg line: '-npa'
+            schema( dir: xsdDir.path, includes: "*.xsd" )
         }
     }
 }