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200-901 Practice Question: A DevOps team uses GitLab CI to deploy a…
A DevOps team uses GitLab CI to deploy a containerized application to a Kubernetes cluster. The deployment pipeline fails at the 'deploy' stage with an error: 'unable to connect to server'. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between pipeline-stage-specific errors; the trap here is confusing a Kubernetes connectivity error (missing kubeconfig) with a resource scheduling issue (insufficient resources) or a build failure, which occur at different stages and produce distinct error messages.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The kubeconfig file for the cluster is missing or invalid.
The error 'unable to connect to server' indicates that the GitLab CI runner cannot establish a TCP connection to the Kubernetes API server. This is most commonly caused by a missing or invalid kubeconfig file, which contains the cluster endpoint, credentials, and context required by kubectl to authenticate and communicate with the cluster. Without a valid kubeconfig, the deployment stage cannot proceed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The Git repository is private and cannot be accessed.
Why it's wrong here
Repository access is not related to Kubernetes cluster connectivity.
- ✓
The kubeconfig file for the cluster is missing or invalid.
Why this is correct
Without a valid kubeconfig, kubectl cannot connect to the cluster.
- ✗
The Docker image was not built successfully.
Why it's wrong here
An image build failure would be caught in the build stage, not the deploy stage.
- ✗
The Kubernetes cluster has insufficient resources to schedule the pod.
Why it's wrong here
Insufficient resources would cause a different error (e.g., 'pod pending' or 'unschedulable').
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-901 exam.