> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.kodekloud.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Demo Traefik Observability

> This article explores the Traefik dashboard for observability, detailing its configuration, access, and features in a Kubernetes environment.

In this lesson, we’ll explore the Traefik dashboard—a powerful observability interface enabled by default in every Traefik installation. The dashboard provides real-time insights into routing rules, service health, and security settings. For production environments, avoid exposing this dashboard publicly. Use a private network or [kubectl port-forward](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/port-forward-access-application/) instead. In this lab, we will configure a NodePort (30000) for direct access.

## 1. Deploy the Traefik Dashboard Service

Create a Service of type `NodePort` to expose the Traefik API port:

```yaml theme={null}
# service-dashboard.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: traefik-dashboard-service
  namespace: traefik
spec:
  type: NodePort
  ports:
    - port: 9000
      targetPort: traefik
      nodePort: 30000
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: traefik-traefik
```

Apply and verify the Service:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl apply -f service-dashboard.yaml
kubectl describe svc -n traefik traefik-dashboard-service
```

Expected output:

```text theme={null}
Name:                     traefik-dashboard-service
Namespace:                traefik
Selector:                 app.kubernetes.io/instance=traefik-traefik
Type:                     NodePort
IP:                       10.104.3.15
Port:                     9000/TCP
TargetPort:               traefik/TCP
NodePort:                 30000/TCP
Endpoints:                10.1.0.10:9000
```

## 2. Enable Insecure API Access

By default, Traefik’s API/dashboard is secured. For this lab, we’ll enable insecure access by adding `--api.insecure=true` to the deployment arguments.

Edit the Traefik deployment:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl edit deployment traefik -n traefik
```

Under the container spec’s `args:` section, include:

```yaml theme={null}
args:
  - "--api.dashboard=true"
  - "--api.insecure=true"
  - "--entryPoints.metrics.address=:9100/tcp"
  - "--entryPoints.traefik.address=:9000/tcp"
  - "--entryPoints.web.address=:8000/tcp"
  - "--entryPoints.websecure.address=:8443/tcp"
  - "--metrics.prometheus=true"
  - "--metrics.prometheus.entrypoint=metrics"
  - "--providers.kubernetescrd"
  - "--providers.kubernetesingress"
  - "--entryPoints.websecure.http.tls=true"
  - "--log.level=INFO"
  - "--accesslog=true"
  - "--accesslog.fields.defaultmode=keep"
  - "--accesslog.fields.headers.defaultmode=drop"
  - "--ping=true"
  - "--global.sendanonymoususage"
```

Save and exit. The deployment will rollout updated pods:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl get pods -n traefik
```

You should see:

```text theme={null}
NAME                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
traefik-79554cb74d-txqdf     1/1     Running   0          30s
```

## 3. Access the Dashboard

Open port 30000 on your node and navigate to:

```text theme={null}
http://<node-ip>:30000
```

On the dashboard, you’ll find:

* **Entry Points**: Listening ports on the Traefik pod
* **Routers**: Rules mapping incoming requests to services
* **Services**: Backend services and their endpoints
* **Middlewares**: Request transformations (none configured here)

### Entry Points Overview

| Entry Point | Port | Protocol | TLS Enabled |
| ----------- | ---- | -------- | ----------- |
| metrics     | 9100 | TCP      | No          |
| traefik     | 9000 | TCP      | No          |
| web         | 8000 | TCP      | No          |
| websecure   | 8443 | TCP      | Yes         |

### Inspecting Services

On the **Services** page, you can drill into each service’s pods and endpoints. In our CompanyX application, all services show healthy endpoints:

<Frame>
  ![The image shows a Traefik dashboard displaying service details for a Kubernetes load balancer, including server URLs and their statuses. It also lists routers used by the service with associated rules and priorities.](https://kodekloud.com/kk-media/image/upload/v1752880301/notes-assets/images/Kubernetes-Networking-Deep-Dive-Demo-Traefik-Observability/traefik-dashboard-kubernetes-load-balancer.jpg)
</Frame>

## 4. Scale the Application

Let’s scale the CompanyX website to 5 replicas:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl scale deployment companyx-website --replicas=5
```

Verify new pods:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl get pods -n companyx
```

```text theme={null}
NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
companyx-website-5d596d7d7d-abc12     1/1     Running   0          1m
companyx-website-5d596d7d7d-def34     1/1     Running   0          1m
companyx-website-5d596d7d7d-ghi56     1/1     Running   0          1m
companyx-website-5d596d7d7d-jkl78     1/1     Running   0          1m
companyx-website-5d596d7d7d-mno90     1/1     Running   0          1m
```

Refresh the Traefik dashboard—you’ll now see five healthy pods listed under the CompanyX service.

<Callout icon="lightbulb" color="#1CB2FE">
  In a production setup, secure the dashboard with authentication or restrict access to a private network.
</Callout>

***

This completes our overview of the Traefik observability dashboard—an invaluable tool for monitoring traffic flows, routing, and service health in Kubernetes. For further reading, see the [Traefik documentation](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/).

<CardGroup>
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