<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>The error you are getting usually comes when the <code>KUBECONFIG</code> environment variable is not exported. Run the following commands as a regular user or run the last command as root.</p>
<pre><code>sudo cp /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/
sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/admin.conf
export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/admin.conf
</code></pre>
<p>Refer my SO answer <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/48827221/3537880">here</a></p>
<p>Now that you are able to run <code>kubectl</code> commands, you should see any pods that are created as a control plane component or as a workload. Use following command to see the nodes as part of your cluster.</p>
<pre><code>kubectl get nodes
</code></pre>
<p>Make sure to verify that all the control plane components are running fine as well</p>
<pre><code>kubectl get pods -n kube-system
</code></pre>
