[Kea-users] Duplicate logging

Darren Ankney darren.ankney at gmail.com
Wed Aug 12 00:58:39 UTC 2026


Hi Jim,

The thread ID is this part: 139861628155584 inside the square
brackets.  For one of the packets it is: 139861628155584 and for the
other it is 139861619762880 the part you thought was the thread id is
the transaction ID (see RFC 2131).  That matches but that is
unsurprising with a duplicated packet.  If the logs were being
duplicated then the thread ids would be exactly the same.

Thank you,
Darren Ankney

On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 11:31 AM <jim at wrightthisway.com> wrote:
>
> Hey Darren, it looks to me like the thread ID does match?  0xf90b62 for
> both.
>
> I've done a packet capture for that server, it also acts as an NTP
> server and those packets appear normal and not duplicated. Looking at
> the DHCP packets, I'm only seeing ONE Discover packets going to the
> server, but then see two replies.  So the DHCP server is handling this
> twice.
>
> Time       Source           Destination       Protocol Length Info
> 2.008807   100.67.122.254   100.67.10.20      DHCP     337    DHCP
> Discover - Transaction ID 0xbaef852c
> 2.009683   100.67.10.20     100.67.122.254    DHCP     363    DHCP Offer
>     - Transaction ID 0xbaef852c
> 2.010090   100.67.10.20     100.67.122.254    DHCP     363    DHCP Offer
>     - Transaction ID 0xbaef852c
>
> And with only one Kea process running, I'm really stumped as to what's
> going on here.
>
>
> On 2026-08-10 03:41, Darren Ankney wrote:
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > Adding the thread ID (and inspection of the log configuration)
> > indicates that these are not duplicated log messages:
> >
> > 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO  [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4/312252.139861619762880]
> > DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query: [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> > cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b62
> >
> > 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO  [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4/312252.139861628155584]
> > DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query: [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> > cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b62
> >
> > Note that the thread ID between the two messages above do not match.
> > These are most likely duplicated packets.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Darren Ankney
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 9, 2026 at 12:04 PM <jim at wrightthisway.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi Darren, you are correct that the [%c/%i.%t] pattern wasn't part of
> >> my
> >> logging, I went back to my earliest config file and didn't see it
> >> listed, not sure if the RHEL package had that changed or not by
> >> default,
> >> but I did just now add that to my pattern.
> >>
> >> "loggers": [
> >>      {
> >>          "name": "kea-dhcp4",
> >>          "output-options": [
> >>              {
> >>                  "output": "kea-dhcp4.log",
> >>                  "pattern": "%D{%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%q} %-5p [%c/%i.%t]
> >> %m\n",
> >>                  "maxsize": 150000000,
> >>                  "maxver": 8
> >>              }
> >>          ],
> >>
> >>          "severity": "INFO"
> >>      },
> >>
> >> Here is the updated logging I'm seeing:
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO  [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4/312252.139861619762880]
> >> DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query: [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b62
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO  [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4/312252.139861628155584]
> >> DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query: [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b62
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO
> >> [kea-dhcp4.packets/312252.139861619762880]
> >> DHCP4_PACKET_RECEIVED [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b627: DHCPINF.254 to
> >> 100.67.10.20
> >> on interface eno16895np0
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO
> >> [kea-dhcp4.packets/312252.139861628155584]
> >> DHCP4_PACKET_RECEIVED [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b627: DHCPINF.254 to
> >> 100.67.10.20
> >> on interface eno16895np0
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO
> >> [kea-dhcp4.packets/312252.139861628155584]
> >> DHCP4_PACKET_SEND [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b627: trying to s.67.10.20:67 to
> >> 100.67.98.232:68 on interface eno16895np0
> >> 2026-08-09 11:55:20.510 INFO
> >> [kea-dhcp4.packets/312252.139861619762880]
> >> DHCP4_PACKET_SEND [hwtype=1 b4:45:06:eb:25:69],
> >> cid=[01:b4:45:06:eb:25:69], tid=0xf908b627: trying to s.67.10.20:67 to
> >> 100.67.98.232:68 on interface eno16895np0
> >>
> >> As far as I can tell I only have one Kea process running on this
> >> server.
> >> [root at 100671020-2 kea]# ps aux | grep kea
> >> kea       312252  0.0  0.1 1832636 24524 ?       Ssl  11:55   0:00
> >> /usr/sbin/kea-dhcp4 -c /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf
> >> root      312828  0.0  0.0 227704  2260 pts/1    S+   12:01   0:00
> >> grep
> >> --color=auto kea
> >>
> >>
> >> Again, this happened suddenly with no changes to the system at that
> >> time.  My next step is to get a packet dump from what's reaching this
> >> server to see if somehow packets being sent are duplicated for some
> >> reason, that will be for Monday though.
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2026-08-08 05:01, Darren Ankney wrote:
> >> > Hi,
> >> >
> >> > It won't be possible to help you with this without at least the
> >> > loggers section of your configuration.  It also looks like you may
> >> > have changed the logging pattern and did not include this part:
> >> > "[%c/%i.%t]" which would have shown which logger was producing the
> >> > log, the process id (to rule out the possibility of multiple Kea
> >> > servers running), and finally the thread id (which would have been the
> >> > final piece proving that it was the same log duplicated).
> >> > Additionally, these values are often helpful when you are trying to
> >> > trace what happened with a particular packet as they can move to
> >> > different threads when parked during certain hook callouts and the
> >> > like.  It is often helpful to organize the logs by thread id when
> >> > looking deeply at some behavior.
> >> >
> >> > Please attach a copy of your "loggers" configuration to progress
> >> > troubleshooting.
> >> >
> >> > Thank you,
> >> > Darren Ankney
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, Aug 7, 2026 at 4:10 PM Jim <jim at wrightthisway.com> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> I don’t check my logs often but was making an update to my config and
> >> >> something odd caught my eye, I’m getting a number of lines duplicated.
> >> >>  My config hasn’t changed for months until today, and this started
> >> >> happening back in July 28, it looks like Kea reloaded itself and
> >> >> that’s when the dupes began.
> >> >>
> >> >> I checked the logs and all I see is Version 3.0.3 listed both before
> >> >> and after that, so I don’t think the actual software release changed,
> >> >> yum shows my version as 3.0.3-1.el10_2.
> >> >>
> >> >> Sample log lines that are dupes:
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.625 INFO  DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query:
> >> >> [hwtype=1 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.625 INFO  DHCP4_QUERY_LABEL received query:
> >> >> [hwtype=1 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.625 INFO  DHCP4_PACKET_RECEIVED [hwtype=1
> >> >> 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b: DHCPDISCOVER (type
> >> >> 1) received from 100.67.122.254 to 100.67.10.20 on interface
> >> >> eno16895np0
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.625 INFO  DHCP4_PACKET_RECEIVED [hwtype=1
> >> >> 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b: DHCPDISCOVER (type
> >> >> 1) received from 100.67.122.254 to 100.67.10.20 on interface
> >> >> eno16895np0
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.626 INFO  DHCP4_PACKET_SEND [hwtype=1
> >> >> 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b: trying to send
> >> >> packet DHCPOFFER (type 2) from 100.67.10.20:67 to 100.67.122.254:67 on
> >> >> interface eno16895np0
> >> >>
> >> >> 2026-08-07 16:01:09.626 INFO  DHCP4_PACKET_SEND [hwtype=1
> >> >> 0c:29:ef:e2:05:80], cid=[no info], tid=0xd14ec51b: trying to send
> >> >> packet DHCPOFFER (type 2) from 100.67.10.20:67 to 100.67.122.254:67 on
> >> >> interface eno16895np0
> >> >>
> >> >> --
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> >> >>
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