diff --git a/nova/console/websocketproxy.py b/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
index 4d32ff4328bb..483d4d7eddc3 100644
--- a/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
+++ b/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 class NovaProxyRequestHandlerBase(object):
+    def address_string(self):
+        # NOTE(rpodolyaka): override the superclass implementation here and
+        # explicitly disable the reverse DNS lookup, which might fail on some
+        # deployments due to DNS configuration and break VNC access completely
+        return str(self.client_address[0])
+
     def new_websocket_client(self):
         """Called after a new WebSocket connection has been established."""
         # Reopen the eventlet hub to make sure we don't share an epoll
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/console/test_websocketproxy.py b/nova/tests/unit/console/test_websocketproxy.py
index c0526a2cf14d..c40a77c42a1e 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/console/test_websocketproxy.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/console/test_websocketproxy.py
@@ -155,3 +155,20 @@ class NovaProxyRequestHandlerBaseTestCase(test.TestCase):
 
         self.assertRaises(exception.NovaException,
                           self.wh.new_websocket_client)
+
+    @mock.patch('socket.getfqdn')
+    def test_address_string_doesnt_do_reverse_dns_lookup(self, getfqdn):
+        request_mock = mock.MagicMock()
+        request_mock.makefile().readline.side_effect = [
+            'GET /vnc.html?token=123-456-789 HTTP/1.1\r\n',
+            ''
+        ]
+        server_mock = mock.MagicMock()
+        client_address = ('8.8.8.8', 54321)
+
+        handler = websocketproxy.NovaProxyRequestHandler(
+            request_mock, client_address, server_mock)
+        handler.log_message('log message using client address context info')
+
+        self.assertFalse(getfqdn.called)  # no reverse dns look up
+        self.assertEqual(handler.address_string(), '8.8.8.8')  # plain address