apache/cassandra · critical · ConfigurationException

broadcast_address cannot be a wildcard address (

Error message

broadcast_address cannot be a wildcard address (

What it means

broadcast_address resolved successfully but to a wildcard address (0.0.0.0 or ::). Since broadcast_address is advertised to other nodes via gossip, a wildcard value is meaningless and DatabaseDescriptor throws this ConfigurationException at startup.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java:1541

        else if (config.listen_interface != null)
        {
            listenAddress = getNetworkInterfaceAddress(config.listen_interface, "listen_interface", config.listen_interface_prefer_ipv6);
        }

        /* Gossip Address to broadcast */
        if (config.broadcast_address != null)
        {
            try
            {
                broadcastAddress = InetAddress.getByName(config.broadcast_address);
            }
            catch (UnknownHostException e)
            {
                throw new ConfigurationException("Unknown broadcast_address '" + config.broadcast_address + '\'', false);
            }

            if (broadcastAddress.isAnyLocalAddress())
                throw new ConfigurationException("broadcast_address cannot be a wildcard address (" + config.broadcast_address + ")!", false);
        }

        /* Local IP, hostname or interface to bind RPC server to */
        if (config.rpc_address != null && config.rpc_interface != null)
        {
            throw new ConfigurationException("Set rpc_address OR rpc_interface, not both", false);
        }
        else if (config.rpc_address != null)
        {
            try
            {
                rpcAddress = InetAddress.getByName(config.rpc_address);
            }
            catch (UnknownHostException e)
            {
                throw new ConfigurationException("Unknown host in rpc_address " + config.rpc_address, false);
            }
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Set broadcast_address to the node's routable IP, or remove the key entirely (defaults to listen_address).
2. For NAT/public-endpoint setups use broadcast_address plus broadcast_rpc_address with real addresses.

Example fix

# before (cassandra.yaml)
broadcast_address: 0.0.0.0
# after
broadcast_address: 10.0.0.5

ba = yaml['broadcast_address']
raise 'broadcast_address cannot be a wildcard address' if %w[0.0.0.0 ::].include?(ba)

catch (ConfigurationException e) { logger.error("broadcast_address is wildcard: {}", e.getMessage()); System.exit(2); }

When it happens

Trigger: InetAddress.getByName(config.broadcast_address) succeeds but returns isAnyLocalAddress() == true, e.g. broadcast_address: 0.0.0.0 in cassandra.yaml.

Common situations: Bulk-editing all address settings to 0.0.0.0 in containers; misunderstanding broadcast_address vs rpc_address semantics; copy-paste from rpc_address config.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• listen_address cannot be a wildcard address (
• Unknown broadcast_address '
• Set listen_address OR listen_interface, not both
• Unknown listen_address '
• Set rpc_address OR rpc_interface, not both

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/53e034b7597e33bb. Report an issue: GitHub.