helm and kubectl context mismatch

Question

I'm having trouble understanding helm's use of helm --kube-context=microk8s install ... should install into the context microk8s thus into my local microk8s cluster rather than the remote GKE cluster which I once connected to.

This however fails due to Error: could not get Kubernetes config for context "microk8s": context "microk8s" does not exist if I run e.g. helm --kube-context=microk8s install --name mereet-kafka after successfully running helm init and adding necessary repositories.

The context microk8s is present and enabled according to kubectl config current-context. I can even reproduce this by running helm --kube-context=$(kubectl config current-context) install --name mereet-kafka in order to avoid any typos.

Why can't helm use obviously present contexts?

Answer 1

This looks like a kubernetes configuration problem more than an issue with helm itself.

There are few things that might help:

1. Check the config file in ~/.kube/config

   • kubectl config view

Is current-context set to: microk8s?

2. Try to use:

   • kubectl config get-contexts

   • kubectl config set-context

   • kubectl config use-context

with proper arguments --server --user --cluster

3. Check if you are refering to the config from ~/.kube/config and not your own private config from somewhere else.

4. Check if you have a KUBECONFIG environment variable (echo $KUBECONFIG)

I hope it helps.