Getting the IP address of the current machine using Java

Question

I am trying to develop a system where there are different nodes that are run on different system or on different ports on the same system.

Now all the nodes create

Answer 1

Posting here tested IP ambiguity workaround code from https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JCS-40 (InetAddress.getLocalHost() ambiguous on Linux systems):

/**
 * Returns an InetAddress object encapsulating what is most likely the machine's LAN IP address.
 * 

 * This method is intended for use as a replacement of JDK method InetAddress.getLocalHost, because
 * that method is ambiguous on Linux systems. Linux systems enumerate the loopback network interface the same
 * way as regular LAN network interfaces, but the JDK InetAddress.getLocalHost method does not
 * specify the algorithm used to select the address returned under such circumstances, and will often return the
 * loopback address, which is not valid for network communication. Details
 * here.
 * 

 * This method will scan all IP addresses on all network interfaces on the host machine to determine the IP address
 * most likely to be the machine's LAN address. If the machine has multiple IP addresses, this method will prefer
 * a site-local IP address (e.g. 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x, usually IPv4) if the machine has one (and will return the
 * first site-local address if the machine has more than one), but if the machine does not hold a site-local
 * address, this method will return simply the first non-loopback address found (IPv4 or IPv6).
 * 

 * If this method cannot find a non-loopback address using this selection algorithm, it will fall back to
 * calling and returning the result of JDK method InetAddress.getLocalHost.
 * 

 *
 * @throws UnknownHostException If the LAN address of the machine cannot be found.
 */
private static InetAddress getLocalHostLANAddress() throws UnknownHostException {
    try {
        InetAddress candidateAddress = null;
        // Iterate all NICs (network interface cards)...
        for (Enumeration ifaces = NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces(); ifaces.hasMoreElements();) {
            NetworkInterface iface = (NetworkInterface) ifaces.nextElement();
            // Iterate all IP addresses assigned to each card...
            for (Enumeration inetAddrs = iface.getInetAddresses(); inetAddrs.hasMoreElements();) {
                InetAddress inetAddr = (InetAddress) inetAddrs.nextElement();
                if (!inetAddr.isLoopbackAddress()) {

                    if (inetAddr.isSiteLocalAddress()) {
                        // Found non-loopback site-local address. Return it immediately...
                        return inetAddr;
                    }
                    else if (candidateAddress == null) {
                        // Found non-loopback address, but not necessarily site-local.
                        // Store it as a candidate to be returned if site-local address is not subsequently found...
                        candidateAddress = inetAddr;
                        // Note that we don't repeatedly assign non-loopback non-site-local addresses as candidates,
                        // only the first. For subsequent iterations, candidate will be non-null.
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        if (candidateAddress != null) {
            // We did not find a site-local address, but we found some other non-loopback address.
            // Server might have a non-site-local address assigned to its NIC (or it might be running
            // IPv6 which deprecates the "site-local" concept).
            // Return this non-loopback candidate address...
            return candidateAddress;
        }
        // At this point, we did not find a non-loopback address.
        // Fall back to returning whatever InetAddress.getLocalHost() returns...
        InetAddress jdkSuppliedAddress = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
        if (jdkSuppliedAddress == null) {
            throw new UnknownHostException("The JDK InetAddress.getLocalHost() method unexpectedly returned null.");
        }
        return jdkSuppliedAddress;
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
        UnknownHostException unknownHostException = new UnknownHostException("Failed to determine LAN address: " + e);
        unknownHostException.initCause(e);
        throw unknownHostException;
    }
}