Troubleshooting kubectl connection refused

this document describes steps to troubleshoot kubectl error the connection to the server localhost 8080 was refused did you specify the right host or port? troubleshooting steps below the kubectl should be executed on the master node the current user must have kubernetes cluster configuration environment variable or the kube config file $ env | grep i kube kubeconfig=/etc/kubernetes/admin conf $ ls / kube/config config solution mkdir p $home/ kube sudo cp i /etc/kubernetes/admin conf $home/ kube/config sudo chown $(id u) $(id g) $home/ kube/config export kubeconfig=$home/ kube/config echo 'export kubeconfig=$home/ kube/config' >> $home/ bashrc \# try your get pods command now kubectl get pods \# further troubleshooting \## minimum verbosity kubectl get pods v=0 \## debug level verbosity kubectl get pods v=4 \## maximum verbosity kubectl get pods v=9 the containerd service must be running systemctl status containerd the kubelet service must be running systemctl status kubelet tcp port 6443 should be listed as the listening port netstat pnlt | grep 6443 tcp6 0 0 6443 listen 2785/kube apiserver if tcp port 6443 is not available, check kubelet logs journalctl xeu kubelet verify k8s certificates have not expired if expired, then follow how to renew certificates on kubernetes kubeadm alpha certs check expiration open a new support ticket for further troubleshooting