<p>I have a old k8s cluster with 1 master and 2 workers node. It was shutdown for a long time. Now I started it. It had many running pods and deployments.
After restart the VM's all k8s command return</p>
<pre><code>The connection to the server 123.70.70.70:6443 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?
</code></pre>
<p><strong>What I have done so far?</strong>
I saw many stack question to fix this error also on git and some other sites. All need <code>kubeadm reset</code>
If I reset it I will loss all running pods. I don't know how to start those pods again as it was not deployed by me.</p>
<p><strong>What I want?</strong>
Is there a way I can make all the pods and nodes up and running without reset?
Or even if I reset how can I get all the pods back in there running stage? This cluster was design and set it up by someone else I have no idea about its deployments.</p>
<p><strong>Update Question</strong></p>
<p>When I run <code>docker ps -a | grep api</code> I see this</p>
<pre><code>1a6ba468af3a   123.70.70.70:444/demo/webapikl     &quot;dotnet UserProfileA…&quot;    6 months ago    Exited (255) 22 hours ago                                                                                  k8s_webapikl-image_webapikl-deployment-74648888d5-bjpcj_fwd_13a76dd9-8ce5
</code></pre>
<p>Like this many containers. Now any advice to start them please?</p>
<p>I am new to K8s that's why I like to be sure before I do anything.</p>

<p>I really thankful for your time and effort. What worked for me is <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56320930/renew-kubernetes-pki-after-expired/56334732#56334732">this</a> stack overflow Answer along with some changes.</p>
<p>In my case when I was running  <code>systemctl status kubelet</code> I see this error</p>
<pre><code>devops@kubemaster:/$ systemctl status kubelet
● kubelet.service - kubelet: The Kubernetes Node Agent
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/kubelet.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service.d
             └─10-kubeadm.conf
     Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2023-01-11 12:51:04 EET; 9s ago
       Docs: https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/
    Process: 188116 ExecStart=/usr/bin/kubelet $KUBELET_KUBECONFIG_ARGS $KUBELET_CONFIG_ARGS $KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS $KUBELET_EXT&gt;
   Main PID: 188116 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
</code></pre>
<p>Kubelet was stuck at activating.</p>
<p>I follow these steps as mentioned answer.</p>
<pre><code> cd /etc/kubernetes/pki/
$ mv {apiserver.crt,apiserver-etcd-client.key,apiserver-kubelet-client.crt,front-proxy-ca.crt,front-proxy-client.crt,front-proxy-client.key,front-proxy-ca.key,apiserver-kubelet-client.key,apiserver.key,apiserver-etcd-client.crt} ~/
$ kubeadm init phase certs all --apiserver-advertise-address &lt;IP&gt;
$ cd /etc/kubernetes/
$ mv {admin.conf,controller-manager.conf,kubelet.conf,scheduler.conf} ~/
$ kubeadm init phase kubeconfig all
$ reboot
</code></pre>
<p>I also had to delete my <code>etcd .crt</code> and <code>.key</code> files from <code>/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/</code> as mentioned in one comment.</p>
<p>This make kubelet in active state and then I generate new join command and add all the working nodes with master node one by one. Once all nodes were ready I delete the terminating and crashed-loop back pods. Kubeadm created them on different worker nodes. Now all pods working without any issue.</p>
