This article discusses the message " token_bucket_get_tokens: proc 12 Throttling !!!! , " which appears when traffic that reaches the Routing Engine (RE) is very high.

This means that kernel messages are being suppressed or throttled (back pressure) to control the internal RE packets. In some cases, the RE has congestion traffic controlled.

If this message is not seen to repeat, it can safely be ignored because there is no service impact.

This is the internal throttling mechanism to control the traffic that is reaching the RE for processing. To understand which process is causing the issue, collect the " ps -aux " output from the device.

Example

% ps -aux | grep 12
root       12   0.0  0.0       0    736  -  WL   17:55      2:08.16 [intr] <-- proc 12
root     1283   0.0  0.0       0     16  -  DL   17:55      0:00.00 [md11]

This message can be safely ignored. It does not cause service impact.

However, if the message continuously appears, then there might be some kernel processing that is waiting or stuck. In this case, contact JTAC for further investigation.

2021-05-25: Minor changes made to the article; article valid and accurate