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Config file isn't available when connecting

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This article describes how to fix issues that occur when you can't connect to an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster because of a missing or invalid config file.

Prerequisites

Symptoms

During a cluster connection attempt, an error message similar to the following text appears:

Unable to connect to the server: dial tcp [::1]:8080: connectex: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. 

error: You must be logged in to the server (the server has asked for the client to provide credentials)

Causes

The kubectl tool and other Kubernetes connection tools use a local configuration file named config. The config file contains authentication credentials and details to connect to the cluster. By default:

So what happens during an attempted Kubernetes session depends on the user who's running the kubectl command. If you've signed in as user A, and executed both commands, here's what happens:

  • The az aks get-credentials command tries to add the new kubeconfig parameters in the C:\Users\A\.kube\config file.

  • The kubectl command tries to search the C:\Users\A\.kube\config file.

But for kubectl, if the pointer to the kubeconfig file has changed, the file that's used for accessing the cluster is supposed to be in a different location.

Note

A kubeconfig file is a reference to a file that contains configuration parameters for accessing Kubernetes clusters. It doesn't necessarily refer to a file that's named kubeconfig.

The error occurs if one of the following scenarios occurs:

Cause 1: The config file doesn't exist

The config file doesn't exist on your machine.

Solution: Save the credentials

Load the config file by running the az aks get-credentials command in Azure CLI, which saves the credentials. If you don't want to use the default location, specify the --file <config-file-location> parameter with the location of config (for example, ~/Dir1/Dir2/config or C:\Dir1\Dir2\config).

az aks get-credentials --resource-group <cluster-resource-group> \
    --name <cluster-name> \
    [--file <config-file-location>]

Cause 2: The config file is in the wrong directory

The config file is on your machine, but it's in a different directory from where the az aks get-credentials command and/or the kubectl tool expects it to be.

Solution: Move the config file, save the credentials again, or change the KUBECONFIG environment variable

Take one or more of the following actions:

  • Move the config file to the directory you want it to be in.

  • Run the az aks get-credentials command. Specify the location you want if it isn't the default location.

    az aks get-credentials --resource-group <cluster-resource-group> \
    --name <cluster-name> \
    [--file <config-file-location>]

  • Use one of the following options to change where kubectl looks for configuration parameters:

Cause 3: The config file has expired or is corrupted

The config file is on your machine. It's also in the expected directory for the az aks get-credentials command and the kubectl tool. But the file is expired or corrupted.

Solution: Reestablish the credentials

Reestablish the credentials, because the existing credentials might be expired or corrupted. In that case, you may run the az aks get-credentials command with the --overwrite-existing parameter.

az aks get-credentials --resource-group <cluster-resource-group> \
    --name <cluster-name> \
    --overwrite-existing \
    [--file <config-file-location>]

Contact us for help

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