Kubernetes - Kubectl version command returns error

Question

MacOs

I just install kubectl via: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/#install-kubectl-on-macos

MacBook-Air:~ admin$ kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"17", GitVersion:"v1.17.0", GitCommit:"70132b0f130acc0bed193d9ba59dd186f0e634cf", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-12-07T21:20:10Z", GoVersion:"go1.13.4", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}
The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

what could be the problem, Any ideas?

Answer 1

kubectl version prints out both the client version and server version. To fetch the server version, it connects to kubernetes api server. You either do not have the cluster installed or have not configured your kubectl properly to communicate with the remote cluster. So it is only printing client version and throwing an error for server version.

Sample output:

# kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.5", GitCommit:"2166946f41b36dea2c4626f90a77706f426cdea2", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-03-25T15:26:52Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.5", GitCommit:"2166946f41b36dea2c4626f90a77706f426cdea2", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-03-25T15:19:22Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

You can use kubectl version --client to get only client version.

# kubectl version --client
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.5", GitCommit:"2166946f41b36dea2c4626f90a77706f426cdea2", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-03-25T15:26:52Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}