Kubernetes - The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

Question

I just finished installing kubectl via Ubuntu 64 (Linux). I followed the online Kubernetes guide, but I've had an error with the host. After the first step (install kubectl), when I checked the kubectl version, this was the message (I didn't yet install and deploy the minikube because I've not the connection according to this problem):

root@ubuntu:~# kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.1", GitCommit:"eec55b9ba98609a46fee712359c7b5b365bdd920", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2018-12-13T10:39:04Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.2", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

Does someone have the same problem? How can I fix it?

Answer 1

The reason behind that is kubectl version prints Client Version and Server Version (kubernetes version) both. When you just install kubectl it is just Kubernetes client. If you have kubernetes cluster installed, it will print both kubectl version and kubernetes version.

If you want to just want to print client version, then use following command:

kubectl version --client=true

The error meant kubectl tried to contact the kubernetes server to get its version but couldn't connect. Are you specifying the right host or port to connect to the kubernetes server.

The reason behind the error is you have not installed kubernetes cluster on you mac. You just installed kubectl which is just a client to access kubernetes cluster. Once you install the kubernetes cluster the output of kubectl version will be like:

[root@ip-10-0-1-138 centos]# kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.1", 
GitCommit:"eec55b9ba98609a46fee712359c7b5b365bdd920", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2018-12-13T10:39:04Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.2", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"10", GitVersion:"v1.10.3", GitCommit:"2bba0127d85d5a46ab4b778548be28623b32d0b0", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2018-05-21T09:05:37Z", GoVersion:"go1.9.3", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

If you want to install the complete kubernetes cluster on mac, please try minikube to install cluster locally.