Reconnect RMI client after server restart

Question

I have an RMI server and a desktop RMI client. When I restart the server, I get errors in the client. Is it possible to restart the RMI connection without restarting the client?

[EDIT] Here is the stacktrace:

java.rmi.ConnectException: Connection refused to host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; nested exception is: 
    java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
    at ...user code...
Caused by: java.rmi.ConnectException: Connection refused to host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; nested exception is: 
    java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPEndpoint.newSocket(TCPEndpoint.java:574)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPChannel.createConnection(TCPChannel.java:185)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPChannel.newConnection(TCPChannel.java:171)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.invoke(UnicastRef.java:94)
    at java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.invokeRemoteMethod(RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.java:179)
    at java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.invoke(RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.java:132)
    at $Proxy0.search(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:592)
    at org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiClientInterceptorUtils.invokeRemoteMethod(RmiClientInterceptorUtils.java:108)
    at org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiClientInterceptor.doInvoke(RmiClientInterceptor.java:362)
    at org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiClientInterceptor.invoke(RmiClientInterceptor.java:258)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:171)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:204)
    at $Proxy1.search(Unknown Source)
    ... 3 more
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:333)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:195)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:182)
    at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:367)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:524)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:474)
    at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:371)
    at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:184)
    at sun.rmi.transport.proxy.RMIDirectSocketFactory.createSocket(RMIDirectSocketFactory.java:22)
    at sun.rmi.transport.proxy.RMIMasterSocketFactory.createSocket(RMIMasterSocketFactory.java:128)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPEndpoint.newSocket(TCPEndpoint.java:569)
    ... 20 more

Answer 1

When the server is terminated, you will receive a ConnectException. After that you can just use Naming.lookup to get a new server object.

Answer 2

If you're using Spring (namely RmiProxyFactoryBean), you can simply set the property refreshStubOnConnectFailure to true and the bean will survive a restart of the server.

<property name="refreshStubOnConnectFailure" value="true" />