diff --git a/cluster/vagrant/provision-master.sh b/cluster/vagrant/provision-master.sh
index e938927cf3f..62fa64ea639 100755
--- a/cluster/vagrant/provision-master.sh
+++ b/cluster/vagrant/provision-master.sh
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ for (( i=0; i<${#MINION_NAMES[@]}; i++)); do
     echo "Adding $minion to hosts file"
     echo "$ip $minion" >> /etc/hosts
   fi
+  echo "127.0.0.1 localhost" >> /etc/hosts # enables cmds like 'kubectl get pods' on master.
 done
 
 # Update salt configuration
diff --git a/cluster/vagrant/util.sh b/cluster/vagrant/util.sh
index a7c9c48b4de..0fc789b1aba 100644
--- a/cluster/vagrant/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/vagrant/util.sh
@@ -174,6 +174,12 @@ function verify-cluster {
     done
   done
 
+  # By this time, all kube api calls should work, so no need to loop and retry.
+  echo "Validating we can run kubectl commands."
+  vagrant ssh master --command "kubectl get pods" || {
+    echo "WARNING: kubectl to localhost failed.  This could mean localhost is not bound to an IP"
+  }
+  
   (
     echo
     echo "Kubernetes cluster is running.  The master is running at:"