Short-lived tls connections with empty data

I have a setup to deliver syslog from application (using irules) to hsl, then to a virtual server which enables serverssl to encrypt the connection between f5 hsl and a remote syslog server.

The setup works except that I observed an issue with constant retried tcp/tls connections between the encrypting virtual server (as a syslog client) and the remote syslog server. Even without log coming from hsl, the encrypting vs simply attempts tcp/tls and then followed by a tcp fin immediately, almost once every couple seconds.

The encrypting virtual server uses the default tcp profile and serverssl profile. I thought a new connection should only be triggered with log data coming from hsl. Is this expected? Is there a way to allow a persistent tls connection between the encrypting virtual server and the remote syslog server?

From ssldump:

New TCP connection 3: 10.0.0.14(49798) <-> 10.0.0.11(514)
3 1  1517783929.0667 (0.0014)  C>SV3.1(163)  Handshake
      ClientHello
        Version 3.3
        random[32]=
          c1 f4 69 0d 48 b8 58 cd ab a9 02 94 88 c9 5d 76
          61 04 4a db 29 0a 02 aa 18 ff ea 39 69 ca 65 e6
        cipher suites
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
        TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
        TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
        TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
        TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV
        compression methods
                  NULL
3 2  1517783929.0682 (0.0015)  S>CV3.3(81)  Handshake
      ServerHello
        Version 3.3
        random[32]=
          cd ff 49 e6 d5 2d 25 74 a4 9d 44 f8 05 bf fc 0a
          bb 69 4d fe 5f fb 15 1e 11 66 ea 01 62 8c 9c 43
        session_id[32]=
          b1 d6 42 f9 3e 61 b4 65 4c ef 25 1b d2 5c d7 eb
          a5 56 24 38 98 86 51 ab f6 b2 53 cd 14 4a b5 0b
        cipherSuite         TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        compressionMethod                   NULL
3 3  1517783929.0682 (0.0000)  S>CV3.3(812)  Handshake
      Certificate
3 4  1517783929.0682 (0.0000)  S>CV3.3(4)  Handshake
      ServerHelloDone
3 5  1517783929.0695 (0.0012)  C>SV3.3(262)  Handshake
      ClientKeyExchange
3 6  1517783929.0695 (0.0000)  C>SV3.3(1)  ChangeCipherSpec
3 7  1517783929.0695 (0.0000)  C>SV3.3(40)  Handshake
3 8  1517783929.0714 (0.0018)  S>CV3.3(1)  ChangeCipherSpec
3 9  1517783929.0714 (0.0000)  S>CV3.3(40)  Handshake
3 10 1517783929.0725 (0.0011)  C>SV3.3(26)  Alert
3    1517783929.0725 (0.0000)  C>S  TCP FIN
3    1517783929.0729 (0.0003)  S>C  TCP FIN

Thanks.