diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableInputFormatBase.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableInputFormatBase.java
index d2510964909..1edb2f945a3 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableInputFormatBase.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableInputFormatBase.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.mapreduce;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -220,11 +221,20 @@ extends InputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable, Result> {
     return splits;
   }
   
-  private String reverseDNS(InetAddress ipAddress) throws NamingException {
+  public String reverseDNS(InetAddress ipAddress) throws NamingException, UnknownHostException {
     String hostName = this.reverseDNSCacheMap.get(ipAddress);
     if (hostName == null) {
-      hostName = Strings.domainNamePointerToHostName(
-        DNS.reverseDns(ipAddress, this.nameServer));
+      String ipAddressString = null;
+      try {
+        ipAddressString = DNS.reverseDns(ipAddress, null);
+      } catch (Exception e) {
+        // We can use InetAddress in case the jndi failed to pull up the reverse DNS entry from the
+        // name service. Also, in case of ipv6, we need to use the InetAddress since resolving
+        // reverse DNS using jndi doesn't work well with ipv6 addresses.
+        ipAddressString = InetAddress.getByName(ipAddress.getHostAddress()).getHostName();
+      }
+      if (ipAddressString == null) throw new UnknownHostException("No host found for " + ipAddress);
+      hostName = Strings.domainNamePointerToHostName(ipAddressString);
       this.reverseDNSCacheMap.put(ipAddress, hostName);
     }
     return hostName;
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestTableInputFormatBase.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestTableInputFormatBase.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c757a2d9b46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestTableInputFormatBase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+/**
+ *
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.mapreduce;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import java.net.Inet6Address;
+import java.net.InetAddress;
+import java.net.UnknownHostException;
+
+import javax.naming.NamingException;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.SmallTests;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
+
+@Category({SmallTests.class})
+public class TestTableInputFormatBase {
+  @Test
+  public void testTableInputFormatBaseReverseDNSForIPv6()
+      throws UnknownHostException, NamingException {
+    String address = "ipv6.google.com";
+    String localhost = null;
+    InetAddress addr = null;
+    TableInputFormat inputFormat = new TableInputFormat();
+    try {
+      localhost = InetAddress.getByName(address).getCanonicalHostName();
+      addr = Inet6Address.getByName(address);
+    } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
+      // google.com is down, we can probably forgive this test.
+      return;
+    }
+    System.out.println("Should retrun the hostname for this host " +
+        localhost + " addr : " + addr);
+    String actualHostName = inputFormat.reverseDNS(addr);
+    assertEquals("Should retrun the hostname for this host. Expected : " +
+        localhost + " Actual : " + actualHostName, localhost, actualHostName);
+  }
+}