hadoop master host fails to connect to localhost: connection refused - hadoop

Question

I've setup HDFS with two nodes, on different hosts, in the same network. I'm using HDFS C++ API. Hdfs name node and data nodes start normally, but when I try to read any data, or open a file, I get the following error:
Call From master/192.168.X.X to localhost:54310 failed on connection exception: connection refused
So I guess it's connected with ssh.
On master box, the following commands work (/etc/hosts file contains master and slave):
ssh master
ssh slave
ssh localhost
ssh user#localhsot
ssh localhost -p 22
But when I try ssh localhost -p 54310, it fails with 'connection refused' error. But ps -ef | grep :54310shows that name node listens on that port.
Any ideas how to fix that?
hdfs-site.xml
<property>
<name>dfs.replication</name>
<value>2</value>
<description>Default block replication.
The actual number of replications can be specified when the file is created.
The default is used if replication is not specified in create time.
</description>
</property>
<property>
<name>dfs.datanode.max.locked.memory</name>
<value>0</value>
<description>Default block replication.
The actual number of replications can be specified when the file is created.
The default is used if replication is not specified in create time.
</description>
</property>
</configuration>
mapreg-site.xml
<configuration>
<property>
<name>mapred.job.tracker</name>
<value>master:54311</value>
<description>The host and port that the MapReduce job tracker runs
at. If "local", then jobs are run in-process as a single map
and reduce task.
</description>
</property>
</configuration>
core-site.xml
<configuration>
<property>
<name>hadoop.tmp.dir</name>
<value>/app/hadoop/tmp</value>
<description>A base for other temporary directories.</description>
</property>
<property>
<name>fs.default.name</name>
<value>hdfs://master:54310</value>
<description>The name of the default file system. A URI whose
scheme and authority determine the FileSystem implementation. The
uri's scheme determines the config property (fs.SCHEME.impl) naming
the FileSystem implementation class. The uri's authority is used to
determine the host, port, etc. for a filesystem.</description>
</property>
</configuration>
slaves
master
slave
masters
master
EDIT: results from netstat -an
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:54310 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:54310 127.0.0.1:45156 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:45156 127.0.0.1:54310 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:54310 127.0.0.1:45140 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:54310 127.0.0.1:45134 TIME_WAIT
I've also replaced master with localhost on master host, which solved the problem on master. Now the only error I'm getting is in slave, which fails to connect to the master
2018-01-21 23:53:18,597 INFO org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client: Retrying connect to server: master/ 192.168.0.237:54310. Already tried 8 time(s); retry policy is RetryUpToMaximumCountWithFixedSl eep(maxRetries=10, sleepTime=1000 MILLISECONDS)
2018-01-21 23:53:19,599 INFO org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client: Retrying connect to server: master/ 192.168.0.237:54310. Already tried 9 time(s); retry policy is RetryUpToMaximumCountWithFixedSl eep(maxRetries=10, sleepTime=1000 MILLISECONDS)
2018-01-21 23:53:19,609 WARN org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.datanode.DataNode: Problem connecti ng to server: master/192.168.0.237:54310
2018-01-21 23:53:25,613 INFO org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client: Retrying connect to server: master/ 192.168.0.237:54310. Already tried 0 time(s); retry policy is RetryUpToMaximumCountWithFixedSl eep(maxRetries=10, sleepTime=1000 MILLISECONDS)
2018-01-21 23:53:26,615 INFO org.apache.hadoop.ipc.Client: Retrying connect to server: master/ 192.168.0.237:54310. Already tried 1 time(s); retry policy is RetryUpToMaximumCountWithFixedSl eep(maxRetries=10, sleepTime=1000 MILLISECONDS)