diff --git a/patches/systemvm/debian/config/etc/init.d/cloud-early-config b/patches/systemvm/debian/config/etc/init.d/cloud-early-config
index c0a7189d7a4..c12ca74cfcf 100755
--- a/patches/systemvm/debian/config/etc/init.d/cloud-early-config
+++ b/patches/systemvm/debian/config/etc/init.d/cloud-early-config
@@ -714,6 +714,8 @@ setup_dnsmasq() {
   [ $ETH0_IP ] && echo "dhcp-option=6,$NS" >> /etc/dnsmasq.conf
   [ $ETH0_IP6 ] && echo "dhcp-option=option6:dns-server,$NS6" >> /etc/dnsmasq.conf
 #adding the name data-server to the /etc/hosts for allowing the access to user-data service and ssh-key reset in every subnet.
+  //removing the existing entires to avoid duplicates on restarts.
+  sed -i  '/data-server/d' /etc/hosts
   if [ -n "$ETH0_IP" ]
           then
            echo "$ETH0_IP data-server" >> /etc/hosts