diff --git a/modules/transport-netty4/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/netty4/OpenSearchLoggingHandlerIT.java b/modules/transport-netty4/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/netty4/OpenSearchLoggingHandlerIT.java
index 90006ef78bb..d7703390cb3 100644
--- a/modules/transport-netty4/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/netty4/OpenSearchLoggingHandlerIT.java
+++ b/modules/transport-netty4/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/netty4/OpenSearchLoggingHandlerIT.java
@@ -53,11 +53,10 @@ public class OpenSearchLoggingHandlerIT extends OpenSearchNetty4IntegTestCase {
 
     public void setUp() throws Exception {
         super.setUp();
-        appender = new MockLogAppender();
+        appender = MockLogAppender.createStarted();
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(OpenSearchLoggingHandler.class), appender);
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(TransportLogger.class), appender);
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(TcpTransport.class), appender);
-        appender.start();
     }
 
     public void tearDown() throws Exception {
diff --git a/plugins/transport-nio/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/nio/NioTransportLoggingIT.java b/plugins/transport-nio/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/nio/NioTransportLoggingIT.java
index 4c8e711be33..64c6edc48c3 100644
--- a/plugins/transport-nio/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/nio/NioTransportLoggingIT.java
+++ b/plugins/transport-nio/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/opensearch/transport/nio/NioTransportLoggingIT.java
@@ -54,10 +54,9 @@ public class NioTransportLoggingIT extends NioIntegTestCase {
 
     public void setUp() throws Exception {
         super.setUp();
-        appender = new MockLogAppender();
+        appender = MockLogAppender.createStarted();
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(TransportLogger.class), appender);
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(TcpTransport.class), appender);
-        appender.start();
     }
 
     public void tearDown() throws Exception {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/common/settings/SettingsFilterTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/common/settings/SettingsFilterTests.java
index 993aa45cc91..1278489f18d 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/common/settings/SettingsFilterTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/common/settings/SettingsFilterTests.java
@@ -143,10 +143,9 @@ public class SettingsFilterTests extends OpenSearchTestCase {
     private void assertExpectedLogMessages(Consumer<Logger> consumer, MockLogAppender.LoggingExpectation... expectations)
         throws IllegalAccessException {
         Logger testLogger = LogManager.getLogger("org.opensearch.test");
-        MockLogAppender appender = new MockLogAppender();
+        MockLogAppender appender = MockLogAppender.createStarted();
         Loggers.addAppender(testLogger, appender);
         try {
-            appender.start();
             Arrays.stream(expectations).forEach(appender::addExpectation);
             consumer.accept(testLogger);
             appender.assertAllExpectationsMatched();
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/transport/TransportLoggerTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/transport/TransportLoggerTests.java
index ad8538a5e37..12cc7be4b1e 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/transport/TransportLoggerTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/transport/TransportLoggerTests.java
@@ -56,9 +56,8 @@ public class TransportLoggerTests extends OpenSearchTestCase {
 
     public void setUp() throws Exception {
         super.setUp();
-        appender = new MockLogAppender();
+        appender = MockLogAppender.createStarted();
         Loggers.addAppender(LogManager.getLogger(TransportLogger.class), appender);
-        appender.start();
     }
 
     public void tearDown() throws Exception {
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/opensearch/test/MockLogAppender.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/opensearch/test/MockLogAppender.java
index cf810772302..df42a6f0237 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/opensearch/test/MockLogAppender.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/opensearch/test/MockLogAppender.java
@@ -51,7 +51,19 @@ public class MockLogAppender extends AbstractAppender {
 
     private static final String COMMON_PREFIX = System.getProperty("opensearch.logger.prefix", "org.opensearch.");
 
-    private List<LoggingExpectation> expectations;
+    private final List<LoggingExpectation> expectations;
+
+    /**
+     * Creates and starts a MockLogAppender. Generally preferred over using the constructor
+     * directly because adding an unstarted appender to the static logging context can cause
+     * difficult-to-identify errors in the tests and this method makes it impossible to do
+     * that.
+     */
+    public static MockLogAppender createStarted() throws IllegalAccessException {
+        final MockLogAppender appender = new MockLogAppender();
+        appender.start();
+        return appender;
+    }
 
     public MockLogAppender() throws IllegalAccessException {
         super("mock", RegexFilter.createFilter(".*(\n.*)*", new String[0], false, null, null), null);