How to fix The connection to the server was refused in Kubernetes

Check your kubeconfig file:

kubectl config view

Look for the server: field. Typical format: https://10.0.0.1:6443 or https://kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local

Try a direct connection:

curl -k https://YOUR_API_SERVER:6443

If you get connection refused, the server is not listening.

On the control plane node:

kubectl get nodes
# Or on control plane:
sudo systemctl status kubelet
sudo systemctl status kube-apiserver

If using kubeadm, check pod status:

kubectl get pods -n kube-system | grep apiserver

For kubeadm clusters:

sudo systemctl restart kubelet

For managed services (EKS, GKE), use the cloud console to check and restart the cluster control plane.

If the address is wrong, update it:

kubectl config set-cluster kubernetes --server=https://CORRECT_IP:6443

Or manually edit ~/.kube/config and change the server field.