diff --git a/cmreslogging/handlers.py b/cmreslogging/handlers.py
index 7f6fb01..eb7f694 100644
--- a/cmreslogging/handlers.py
+++ b/cmreslogging/handlers.py
@@ -190,8 +190,13 @@ def __init__(self,
         self.index_name_frequency = index_name_frequency
         self.es_doc_type = es_doc_type
         self.es_additional_fields = es_additional_fields.copy()
-        self.es_additional_fields.update({'host': socket.gethostname(),
-                                          'host_ip': socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())})
+        try:
+
+            self.es_additional_fields.update({'host': socket.gethostname(),
+                                              'host_ip': socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())})
+        except Exception:
+            self.es_additional_fields.update({'host': 'localhost',
+                                              'host_ip': '127.0.0.1'})
         self.raise_on_indexing_exceptions = raise_on_indexing_exceptions
         self.default_timestamp_field_name = default_timestamp_field_name