When a client bootstrap uses a valid host but an incorrect port, the java clients will never fail but instead loop forever trying to fetch metadata. A sample debug log of the consumer is:
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,880] DEBUG Initialize connection to node -1 for sending metadata request (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:629)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,880] DEBUG Initiating connection to node -1 at localhost:9999. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:492)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,881] DEBUG Node -1 disconnected. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:459)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,881] DEBUG Give up sending metadata request since no node is available (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:614)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,983] DEBUG Initialize connection to node -1 for sending metadata request (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:629)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,983] DEBUG Initiating connection to node -1 at localhost:9999. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:492)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,984] DEBUG Node -1 disconnected. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:459)
[2016-03-25 11:37:39,985] DEBUG Give up sending metadata request since no node is available (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:614)
[2016-03-25 11:37:40,090] DEBUG Initialize connection to node -1 for sending metadata request (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:629)
[2016-03-25 11:37:40,090] DEBUG Initiating connection to node -1 at localhost:9999. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:492)
[2016-03-25 11:37:40,091] DEBUG Node -1 disconnected. (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:459)
[2016-03-25 11:37:40,091] DEBUG Give up sending metadata request since no node is available (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient:614)