PowerFlex: kubectl: command not found
Summary: Incorrect permissions lead to the inability to run kubectl commands from the MVMs.
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Symptoms
When running any kubectl command from the MVM, you get a "permission denied" error.
Cause
There are incorrect permissions on various configuration files, "delladmin:root" should own them. If a PFMP cluster is deployed with the root account, the delladmin account does not have access to run kubectl commands.
Resolution
Verify the files and who owns them.
cd /etc ls -lat pki/trust/ rancher/ rancher/rke2/ docker/certs.d/ helmrepo/certs.d
Correct ownership below
#/etc/rancher/rke2/ -rw------- 1 delladmin root 7534 Dec 14 13:24 rke2.yaml -rw------- 1 delladmin root 365 Dec 7 12:21 rke2-pss.yaml -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 325 Dec 7 12:20 registries.yaml -r-------- 1 delladmin root 1144 Dec 7 12:20 config.yaml #/etc/helmrepo/certs.d/ -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 3243 Dec 7 13:30 client.key -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 2013 Dec 7 13:30 client.crt -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 13999 Dec 7 13:30 ca.crt #/etc/docker/certs.d/ -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 3243 Dec 7 12:58 client.key -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 1980 Dec 7 12:58 client.crt -rw-r--r-- 1 delladmin root 13999 Dec 7 12:58 ca.crt #/etc/rancher drwxr-xr-x 1 delladmin root 96 Dec 14 13:24 rke2 #/etc/pki/trust/ drwxr-xr-x 1 delladmin root 468 Dec 7 12:21 anchors
If ownership is not delladmin:root, correct with this action plan.
*It is advised to take a snapshot of each MVM prior to running the following procedure, once complete deleting the snapshots.
On each MVM, run the commands below,
sudo chown delladmin /etc/pki/trust/anchors sudo chown delladmin /etc/rancher/rke2 sudo chown delladmin /etc/rancher/rke2/* sudo chown delladmin /etc/docker/certs.d/* sudo chown delladmin /etc/helmrepo/certs.d/* # The presence of this file owned by root can cause upgrades to fail with delladmin account rm /tmp/ca.crt
To verify the fix,
kubectl get nodes
Repeat on the other MVMs
Article Properties
Article Number: 000292038
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 24 Jul 2025
Version: 3
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