diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 41c66ec..78bf49e 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -99,12 +99,3 @@ repo_pypiserver_start_options: >-
 # config override var for systemd init file
 repo_pypiserver_init_overrides: {}
 
-# nginx host:port for pypi reverse proxy
-repo_nginx_pypi_upstream: "pypi.python.org:443"
-
-# Set the options for the nginx proxy_cache_path directive.
-# The proxy cache is used for data downloaded from pypi.
-# The default is set to cache up to 1G worth of packages
-# for up to 1 month
-repo_nginx_proxy_cache_path: >-
-  /var/lib/nginx/pypi levels=1:2 keys_zone=pypi:16m inactive=1M max_size=1G
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/pypi-cache-removed-c03a9a0658c9d89f.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/pypi-cache-removed-c03a9a0658c9d89f.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ccbcf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/pypi-cache-removed-c03a9a0658c9d89f.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+deprecations:
+  - |
+    The repo server's reverse proxy for pypi has now been removed,
+    leaving only the pypiserver to serve packages already on the
+    repo server. The attempt to reverse proxy upstream pypi turned
+    out to be very unstable with increased complexity for deployers
+    using proxies or offline installs. With this, the variables
+    ``repo_nginx_pypi_upstream`` and ``repo_nginx_proxy_cache_path``
+    have also been removed.
diff --git a/templates/nginx-pypi.conf.j2 b/templates/nginx-pypi.conf.j2
index 9e1e2b7..9beac67 100644
--- a/templates/nginx-pypi.conf.j2
+++ b/templates/nginx-pypi.conf.j2
@@ -1,12 +1,5 @@
 # {{ ansible_managed }}
 
-proxy_cache_path {{ repo_nginx_proxy_cache_path }};
-
 upstream pypiserver {
     server localhost:{{ repo_pypiserver_port }};
 }
-
-upstream pypi {
-    server {{ repo_nginx_pypi_upstream }};
-    keepalive 16;
-}
diff --git a/templates/openstack-slushee.vhost.j2 b/templates/openstack-slushee.vhost.j2
index b990be5..775ce6d 100644
--- a/templates/openstack-slushee.vhost.j2
+++ b/templates/openstack-slushee.vhost.j2
@@ -6,50 +6,18 @@ server {
     access_log /var/log/nginx/{{ repo_server_name }}.access.log gzip buffer=32k;
     error_log /var/log/nginx/{{ repo_server_name }}.error.log notice;
 
-    # Allow cached content to be used even when the upstream source is not available.
-    proxy_cache pypi;
-    proxy_cache_key $uri;
-    proxy_cache_lock on;
-    proxy_cache_revalidate on;
-    proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
-
-    proxy_http_version 1.1;
-    proxy_set_header Host $host:$server_port;
-    proxy_set_header Connection "";
-    proxy_set_header Accept-Encoding "";
-
-    # Rewrite any http redirects to use relative to proxy
-    proxy_redirect ~https?://pypi.python.org(.*) $1;
-
-    # Fallback mechanism from:
-    # http://linuxplayer.org/2013/06/nginx-try-files-on-multiple-named-location-or-server
-    location @pypi {
-        proxy_set_header Host pypi.python.org;
-        {% if repo_nginx_pypi_upstream | match('.*:443$') %}
-        proxy_pass https://pypi;
-        {% else %}
-        proxy_pass http://pypi;
-        {% endif %}
-    }
-
     location /simple {
-        proxy_intercept_errors on;
+        proxy_set_header  Host $host:$server_port;
+        proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
+        proxy_set_header  X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
         proxy_pass http://pypiserver;
-        error_page 404 = @pypi;
     }
 
     location /packages {
-        proxy_intercept_errors on;
+        proxy_set_header  Host $host:$server_port;
+        proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
+        proxy_set_header  X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
         proxy_pass http://pypiserver;
-        error_page 404 = @pypi;
-    }
-
-    location /+f {
-        {% if repo_nginx_pypi_upstream | match('.*:443$') %}
-        proxy_pass https://pypi;
-        {% else %}
-        proxy_pass http://pypi;
-        {% endif %}
     }
 
     location / {