diff --git a/include/http_data.h b/include/http_data.h
index 3a917956..cd306204 100644
--- a/include/http_data.h
+++ b/include/http_data.h
@@ -117,16 +117,16 @@ struct http_req {
     uint64_t route_hash;
     std::map<std::string, std::string> params;
     std::string body;
-    uint64_t seed;
+    std::string metadata;
 
-    http_req(): route_hash(1), seed(random_uint64_t()) {
+    http_req(): route_hash(1) {
 
     }
 
     http_req(h2o_req_t* _req, const std::string & http_method, uint64_t route_hash,
             const std::map<std::string, std::string> & params, std::string body):
             _req(_req), http_method(http_method), route_hash(route_hash), params(params),
-            body(body), seed(random_uint64_t()) {
+            body(body) {
 
     }
 
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ struct http_req {
         nlohmann::json content = nlohmann::json::parse(serialized_content);
         route_hash = content["route_hash"];
         body = content["body"];
-        seed = content["seed"];
+        metadata = content.count("metadata") != 0 ? content["metadata"] : "";
 
         for (nlohmann::json::iterator it = content["params"].begin(); it != content["params"].end(); ++it) {
             params.emplace(it.key(), it.value());
@@ -150,16 +150,10 @@ struct http_req {
         content["route_hash"] = route_hash;
         content["params"] = params;
         content["body"] = body;
-        content["seed"] = seed;
+        content["metadata"] = metadata;
 
         return content.dump();
     }
-
-    uint64_t random_uint64_t() {
-        thread_local std::mt19937 rg(std::random_device{}());
-        thread_local std::uniform_int_distribution<uint64_t> pick(0, std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max());
-        return pick(rg);
-    }
 };
 
 struct request_response {
diff --git a/include/string_utils.h b/include/string_utils.h
index 5a19b3ca..62005f7e 100644
--- a/include/string_utils.h
+++ b/include/string_utils.h
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ struct StringUtils {
         return hash != std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max() ? hash : (std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max()-1);
     }
 
-    static std::string randstring(size_t length, uint64_t seed);
+    static std::string randstring(size_t length);
 
     static std::string hmac(const std::string& key, const std::string& msg);
 };
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/core_api.cpp b/src/core_api.cpp
index a52b1a7a..7d5294d3 100644
--- a/src/core_api.cpp
+++ b/src/core_api.cpp
@@ -894,7 +894,7 @@ bool post_create_key(http_req &req, http_res &res) {
         return false;
     }
 
-    const std::string &rand_key = StringUtils::randstring(AuthManager::KEY_LEN, req.seed);
+    const std::string &rand_key = req.metadata;
 
     api_key_t api_key(
         rand_key,
diff --git a/src/http_server.cpp b/src/http_server.cpp
index 8058e32d..2b8b6dc1 100644
--- a/src/http_server.cpp
+++ b/src/http_server.cpp
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #include <signal.h>
 #include <h2o.h>
 #include <iostream>
+#include <auth_manager.h>
 #include "raft_server.h"
 #include "logger.h"
 
@@ -371,6 +372,12 @@ int HttpServer::catch_all_handler(h2o_handler_t *_self, h2o_req_t *req) {
         }
 
         // routes match and is an authenticated request
+        // do any additional pre-request middleware operations here
+        if(rpath->action == "keys:create") {
+            // we enrich incoming request with a random API key here so that leader and replicas will use the same key
+            request->metadata = StringUtils::randstring(AuthManager::KEY_LEN);
+        }
+
         // for writes, we defer to replication_state
         if(http_method != "GET") {
             self->http_server->get_replication_state()->write(request, response);
diff --git a/src/string_utils.cpp b/src/string_utils.cpp
index 6de06f4c..302831dd 100644
--- a/src/string_utils.cpp
+++ b/src/string_utils.cpp
@@ -52,19 +52,19 @@ void StringUtils::unicode_normalize(std::string & str) const {
     str.assign(lower_and_no_special_chars(out.str()));
 }
 
-std::string StringUtils::randstring(size_t length, uint64_t seed) {
+std::string StringUtils::randstring(size_t length) {
     static auto& chrs = "0123456789"
                         "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
                         "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
 
-    thread_local static std::mt19937_64 mt_rand(seed);
+    thread_local std::mt19937 rg(std::random_device{}());
+    thread_local std::uniform_int_distribution<uint32_t> pick(0, sizeof(chrs) - 2);
 
     std::string s;
     s.reserve(length);
 
     while(length--) {
-        size_t index = (mt_rand() % (sizeof(chrs) - 1));
-        s += chrs[index];
+        s += chrs[pick(rg)];
     }
 
     return s;
diff --git a/src/typesense_server_utils.cpp b/src/typesense_server_utils.cpp
index d0ae17da..9a56416f 100644
--- a/src/typesense_server_utils.cpp
+++ b/src/typesense_server_utils.cpp
@@ -158,9 +158,12 @@ int init_logger(Config & config, const std::string & server_version) {
 
         std::string log_path = log_dir + "/" + "typesense.log";
 
-        // will log level INFO and up to the given log file
+        // will log levels INFO **and above** to the given log file
         google::SetLogDestination(google::INFO, log_path.c_str());
 
+        // don't create symlink for INFO log
+        google::SetLogSymlink(google::INFO, "");
+
         // don't create separate log files for each level
         google::SetLogDestination(google::WARNING, "");
         google::SetLogDestination(google::ERROR, "");