apache/cassandra · error

Seed provider returned more than

Error message

Seed provider returned more than {} seeds. A large seed list may impact effectiveness of the third gossip round.

What it means

Warning emitted by SimpleSeedProvider.getSeeds when DNS resolution of one seed record returned more seeds than the configured limit. A very large seed list weakens gossip's third-round effectiveness because every seed is contacted by every node.

Solutions

1. Reduce the number of seed entries to a small, cross-datacenter set (recommended 2-3 per DC).
2. Keep seeds uniform across all nodes' cassandra.yaml.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/SimpleSeedProvider.java:111 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3a9d3da5e650db3b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/SimpleSeedProvider.java:111

                        logger.debug("{} resolves to {}", host, resolvedSeeds);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        InetAddressAndPort addressAndPort = InetAddressAndPort.getByName(host.trim());
                        seeds.add(addressAndPort);
                        logger.debug("Only resolving one IP per DNS record - {} resolves to {}", host, addressAndPort);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (UnknownHostException ex)
            {
                // not fatal... DD will bark if there end up being zero seeds.
                logger.warn("Seed provider couldn't lookup host {}", host);
            }
        }

        if (seeds.size() > SEED_COUNT_WARN_THRESHOLD)
            logger.warn("Seed provider returned more than {} seeds. " +
                        "A large seed list may impact effectiveness of the third gossip round.",
                        SEED_COUNT_WARN_THRESHOLD);

        return Collections.unmodifiableList(seeds);
    }
}

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