Had a look at the code, and this might be a race-condition like problem at the function StorageService::checkForEndpointCollision and StorageService::prepareReplacementInfo
To do a Gossiper.instance.doShadowRound(), the MessagingService.instance().listen(FBUtilities.getLocalAddress()) must be FULLY (accepting connections) running. However , the listen function is starting SocketThread threads, but is not waiting for these to be started. So I think, at least in theory, that the doShadowRound function will be sending messages, thus excepting answers, but there is no guarantee that the listeners are actually up and running. As a test I modified the MessagingService::listen code by SocketThread th = new SocketThread(ss, "ACCEPT-" + localEp); synchronized( th ) { th.start(); try { th.wait(); } catch(Throwable tt){} } And the SocketThread::run function public void run() { synchronized( this ) { this.notifyAll(); } That way there is little chance the socket thread is not running yet (should be blocked in the server.accept call() ). Regards, Ignace Desimpel From: Desimpel, Ignace [mailto:ignace.desim...@nuance.com] Sent: donderdag 6 februari 2014 12:15 To: user@cassandra.apache.org Subject: Sporadic gossip exception on add node Environment : linux, cassandra 2.0.4, 3 node, embedded, byte ordered, LCS When I add a node to the existing 3 node cluster I sometimes get the exception 'Unable to gossip with any seeds ' listed below. If I just restart it without any change then mostly it works. Must be some timing issue. The Cassandra at that time is configured using the Cassandra.yaml file with the auto_bootstrap set true and the initial_token set to something like : 00f35256, 041e692a, 0562d8b2, 0930274a, 0b16ce96, 0c5b3e1e, 10cac47a, 12b16bc6, 13f5db4e, 186561aa, 1907996e, 1c32b042, 1e19578e ...... The two seeds configured in this yaml are 10.164.8.250 and 10.164.8.249 and these are up and running. The new node to add has ip 10.164.8.93 At the time of the exception, I do not get the gossip message 'Handshaking version with /10.164.8.93' on the seeds. If the exception does not occurs, then I do get that gossip message 'Handshaking version with /10.164.8.93' on the seed 2014-01-31 13:40:36.380 Loading persisted ring state 2014-01-31 13:40:36.386 Starting Messaging Service on port 9804 2014-01-31 13:40:36.408 Handshaking version with /10.164.8.250 2014-01-31 13:40:36.408 Handshaking version with /10.164.8.249 2014-01-31 13:41:07.415 Exception encountered during startup java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to gossip with any seeds at org.apache.cassandra.gms.Gossiper.doShadowRound(Gossiper.java:1160) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.checkForEndpointCollision(StorageService.java:426) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.joinTokenRing(StorageService.java:618) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.initServer(StorageService.java:586) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.initServer(StorageService.java:485) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.setup(CassandraDaemon.java:346) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.activate(CassandraDaemon.java:461) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at be.landc.services.search.server.db.baseserver.indexsearch.store.cassandra.CassandraStore$CassThread.startUpCassandra(CassandraStore.java:469) [landc-services-search-1.2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.2.0-SNAPSHOT-87937] at be.landc.services.search.server.db.baseserver.indexsearch.store.cassandra.CassandraStore$CassThread.run(CassandraStore.java:460) [landc-services-search-1.2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.2.0-SNAPSHOT-87937] java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to gossip with any seeds at org.apache.cassandra.gms.Gossiper.doShadowRound(Gossiper.java:1160) at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.checkForEndpointCollision(StorageService.java:426) at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.joinTokenRing(StorageService.java:618) at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.initServer(StorageService.java:586) at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.initServer(StorageService.java:485) at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.setup(CassandraDaemon.java:346) at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.activate(CassandraDaemon.java:461) at be.landc.services.search.server.db.baseserver.indexsearch.store.cassandra.CassandraStore$CassThread.startUpCassandra(CassandraStore.java:469) at be.landc.services.search.server.db.baseserver.indexsearch.store.cassandra.CassandraStore$CassThread.run(CassandraStore.java:460) Exception encountered during startup: Unable to gossip with any seeds 2014-01-31 13:41:07.419 Exception in thread Thread[StorageServiceShutdownHook,5,main] java.lang.NullPointerException: null at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.stopNativeTransport(StorageService.java:349) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.shutdownClientServers(StorageService.java:364) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.access$3(StorageService.java:361) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService$1.runMayThrow(StorageService.java:551) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at org.apache.cassandra.utils.WrappedRunnable.run(WrappedRunnable.java:28) ~[apache-cassandra-2.0.4-SNAPSHOT.jar:2.0.4-SNAPSHOT] at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724) ~[na:1.7.0_40] 2014-01-31 13:41:07.420 ShutDownHook requests shutdown on be.landc.services.cdi.server.cassandra.CDIServer@7c32d1a3<mailto:be.landc.services.cdi.server.cassandra.CDIServer@7c32d1a3> 2014-01-31 13:41:07.421 Shutdown server request