Kubernetes API authentication

Question

I’m able to create a service using the command kubectl create, I’m also able to access is on the API in my browser.

It then prompts for authentication and credentials.

I got the credentials using the following command

kubectl config view --minify

The API then shows:

{
  "paths": [
    "/apis",
    "/apis/",
    "/apis/apiextensions.k8s.io",
    "/apis/apiextensions.k8s.io/v1beta1",
    "/healthz",
    "/healthz/etcd",
    "/healthz/ping",
    "/healthz/poststarthook/generic-apiserver-start-informers",
    "/healthz/poststarthook/start-apiextensions-controllers",
    "/healthz/poststarthook/start-apiextensions-informers",
    "/metrics",
    "/swagger-2.0.0.json",
    "/swagger-2.0.0.pb-v1",
    "/swagger-2.0.0.pb-v1.gz",
    "/swagger.json",
    "/swaggerapi",
    "/version"
  ]
}

However, when I try to do anything on the kubernetes cluster (Install Helm Tiller for example), it gives me: Kubernetes error: Unauthorized

Answer 1

Best way to retrieve the token is:

kubectl get secrets

To list the secrets

Then

kubectl describe secret SECRET_NAME

To retrieve the token