When trying to connect to A PAM Kubernetes cluster (“kubectl…”) you get a “The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused” error in Continuous Delivery for Puppet Enterprise

When running any kubectl command from the command line on your Puppet Application Manager (PAM) control plane node, you get a The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused error.

Error messages and logs

When running kubectl get pods as root on a Continuous Delivery for Puppet Enterprise control plane node, you get a The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port? error.

You can get this error if the KUBECONFIG environment variable is not set or set incorrectly. The PAM Kubernetes cluster doesn’t communicate with port 8080, it uses either port 6443 or 6444. The error message mentions port 8080, which indicates a configuration issue with your root user profile in /etc/profile.

Version and installation information

Product: Continuous Delivery for Puppet Enterprise
Version: 4.x

Solution

Use the following steps on the PAM control pane node to check if the KUBECONFIG environment variable is present in the root user profile in /etc/profile and if it is present, whether it is configured correctly .

1. To check that the root user profile has the KUBECONFIG variable pointing to /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf , run:

   grep KUBECONFIG /etc/profile

   The output should look similar to the following:

   export KUBECONFIG=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf

2. If export KUBECONFIG is not present, or it is not pointing to /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf, use a text editor, like vi, to correct it. To load the change without restarting the shell, run source /etc/profile.

3. To check that the KUBECONFIG variable has a server: setting that points to either port 6443 or 6444 (either is correct), run:

   grep server /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf

   The output should look similar to the following:

   server: https://localhost:6444 or server: https://<CONTROL PLANE NODE IP ADDRESS>:6444

4. If /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf is not set to 6443 or 6444, use a text editor, like vi, to correct it.