> ## 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 Telepresence Basics > Demo showing how Telepresence lets your local machine act like it's inside a Kubernetes cluster to debug and interact with example services (products, inventory, auth) without port forwarding This demo walks through a small example application and shows how Telepresence lets your local machine behave as if it is running inside a Kubernetes cluster. That makes debugging cluster-internal services — using your local editor, debugger, or network tools — fast and convenient without port-forwarding or building special images. Overview * Three application services: * auth service * product service (entry point) * inventory service * Flow: client → products → inventory (products aggregates inventory data and returns it). The auth service runs independently. Application layout * auth/ — Node.js app (index.js, package.json, Dockerfile) * inventory/ — Node.js app (same structure) * products/ — Node.js app (same structure) * k8s/ — Kubernetes manifests for Deployments and Services Service responsibilities | Service | Role | Notes | | - | - | - | | `products-service` | Entry point for user requests | Aggregates product data and calls `inventory-service` for stock counts | | `inventory-service` | Provides inventory counts | Cluster-internal | | `auth-service` | Authentication mock | Independent service used in examples | Below are the key manifest excerpts and the sequence of steps used in the demo. Deployment and Service manifests Inventory Deployment + Service (example) ```yaml theme={null} apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: inventory-depl spec: selector: matchLabels: app: inventory template: metadata: labels: app: inventory spec: containers: - name: inventory image: sanjeevkt720/telepresence-inventory ports: - containerPort: 3000 name: web --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: inventory-service spec: selector: app: inventory ports: - port: 3000 targetPort: 3000 ``` Products Deployment (entry point) ```yaml theme={null} apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: products-depl spec: selector: matchLabels: app: products template: metadata: labels: app: products spec: volumes: - name: db-config configMap: name: db-info containers: - name: products image: sanjeevkt720/telepresence-products volumeMounts: - name: db-config mountPath: /tmp ports: - containerPort: 3000 name: web # env: (any environment variables would go here) --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: products-service spec: selector: app: products type: LoadBalancer ports: - port: 3000 targetPort: 3000 ``` Auth Service (Service manifest) ```yaml theme={null} --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: auth-service spec: selector: app: auth ports: - port: 3000 targetPort: 3000 ``` Verify cluster nodes Ensure your kubeconfig context is correct and list nodes: ```bash theme={null} kubectl get nodes ``` Example cluster output: ```text theme={null} NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION ip-192-168-24-32.ec2.internal Ready 47h v1.30.4-eks-a737599 ip-192-168-43-108.ec2.internal Ready 47h v1.30.4-eks-a737599 ``` Install the Telepresence client on your local machine Telepresence provides platform-detecting installers. The example below shows the PowerShell steps for Windows (run PowerShell as Administrator): Run installer steps as an Administrator. The script will install components and adjust network routes on your machine. PowerShell installer steps: ```powershell theme={null} # 1. Download the latest windows zip containing telepresence.exe and its dependencies (~50 MB) Invoke-WebRequest https://app.getambassador.io/download/tel2oss/releases/download/v2.20.0/telepresence-windows-amd64.zip -OutFile telepresence.zip # 2. Unzip; then remove the zip file Expand-Archive -Path telepresence.zip -DestinationPath telepresenceInstaller/telepresence Remove-Item 'telepresence.zip' cd telepresenceInstaller/telepresence # 3. Run the installer script to install telepresence and its dependencies. # By default it installs to C:\telepresence (customizable via -Path). powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy bypass -c ". '.\install-telepresence.ps1';" # 4. Cleanup unzipped installer files cd ../.. Remove-Item telepresenceInstaller -Recurse -Confirm:$false -Force # 5. Telepresence is now installed and you can use telepresence commands in PowerShell. ``` Verify Telepresence is available: ```bash theme={null} telepresence --help ``` Install the Traffic Manager into your cluster Telepresence requires a cluster-side component called the Traffic Manager. The Telepresence client includes Helm and can install the Traffic Manager for you: Install with default values: ```bash theme={null} telepresence helm install ``` Install with custom values: ```bash theme={null} telepresence helm install --values values.yaml ``` The Traffic Manager is installed into its own namespace (commonly `ambassador`). Check the namespace and pods after installation: * `kubectl get namespace` * `kubectl get pods -n ambassador` Connect Telepresence to your cluster Telepresence uses the active kubeconfig context. Connect: ```bash theme={null} telepresence connect ``` Example successful connection output: ```text theme={null} Connected to context arn:aws:eks:us-east-1:195275640053:cluster/telepresence, namespace default (https://C22C5458C5800FD626C361045762447E.gr7.us-east-1.eks.amazonaws.com) ``` Check Telepresence status ```bash theme={null} telepresence status ``` Trimmed example status: ```text theme={null} OSS User Daemon: Running Version : 2.20.0 Executable : /usr/local/bin/telepresence Status : Connected Kubernetes server : https://C22C5458C5800FD626C361045762447E.gr7.us-east-1.eks.amazonaws.com Kubernetes context: arn:aws:eks:us-east-1:195275640053:cluster/telepresence Namespace : default Manager namespace : ambassador Intercepts : 0 total OSS Root Daemon: Running Version : v2.20.0 Remote IP : 127.0.0.1 Timeout : 8s Subnets : (2 subnets) - 10.100.0.0/16 - 192.168.0.0/18 OSS Traffic Manager: Connected Version : v2.20.0 Traffic Agent : ghcr.io/telepresenceio/tel2:2.20.0 ``` What Telepresence configures on your machine When connected, Telepresence creates routes for the cluster pod and service CIDRs so local processes can reach cluster IPs and service DNS names directly. Verify these routes with: ```bash theme={null} ip route ``` You should see routes pointing cluster subnets to the Telepresence tunnel interface (often `tel0` on Linux — interface names vary by OS). List services in the cluster ```bash theme={null} kubectl get svc ``` Example services output: ```text theme={null} NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE auth-service ClusterIP 10.100.10.52 3000/TCP 9m39s inventory-service ClusterIP 10.100.246.69 3000/TCP 46m kubernetes ClusterIP 10.100.0.1 443/TCP 48m products-service LoadBalancer 10.100.169.75 a4519082e1ab846e38b03d9760c9e3b9-515600148.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com 3000:30782/TCP 2m7s ``` Because Telepresence makes your laptop appear to be inside the cluster: * ClusterIP services (e.g., `auth-service`, `inventory-service`) are reachable directly by service name or cluster IP. * LoadBalancer services (e.g., `products-service`) remain externally reachable through your cloud provider’s external IP/DNS. DNS lookups resolve cluster service names as if you were inside the cluster: ```bash theme={null} nslookup auth-service ``` Example: ```text theme={null} Server: 127.0.0.53 Address: 127.0.0.53#53 Non-authoritative answer: Name: auth-service Address: 10.100.10.52 ``` Make HTTP requests directly to cluster services Curl the auth service by service name and port: ```bash theme={null} curl http://auth-service:3000 ``` Example JSON response: ```json theme={null} {"message":"this is the auth service"} ``` Call the products (entry point) service with query parameters: ```bash theme={null} curl "http://products-service:3000/?product_ids=1,2,3" ``` Example aggregated response (inventory counts included): ```json theme={null} { "data": [ {"id":1,"name":"iphone 14","price":900,"category":"electronics","onSale":false,"inventoryCount":893}, {"id":2,"name":"Samsung 40in TV","price":500,"category":"electronics","onSale":true,"inventoryCount":902}, {"id":3,"name":"Apple MacbookPro","price":2500,"category":"electronics","onSale":false,"inventoryCount":444} ] } ``` Access individual pods by pod IP Telepresence also routes pod IPs. First get pod details: ```bash theme={null} kubectl get pods -o wide ``` Example: ```text theme={null} NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE IP NODE auth-depl-69bf897bb9-t9hgg 1/1 Running 0 13m 192.168.32.69 ip-192-168-43-108.ec2.internal inventory-depl-5f8657c56c-1p5r4 1/1 Running 0 50m 192.168.34.172 ip-192-168-43-108.ec2.internal products-depl-547767bccd-8zcz9 1/1 Running 0 5m54s 192.168.6.186 ip-192-168-24-32.ec2.internal ``` Curl a pod IP directly: ```bash theme={null} curl http://192.168.32.69:3000 ``` Example response: ```json theme={null} {"message":"this is the auth service"} ``` Disconnect Telepresence When finished, quit Telepresence to stop local daemons and remove routes: ```bash theme={null} telepresence quit telepresence status ``` After quitting, `telepresence status` will show the client is no longer connected. Closing notes Telepresence enables using local development tooling (debuggers, profilers, packet capture, etc.) while interacting with cluster services as if your workstation were inside the cluster network. This simplifies troubleshooting DNS, networking, and service interactions without port-forwarding or building debug images. Links and references * Telepresence documentation: [https://www.telepresence.io/](https://www.telepresence.io/) * Kubernetes documentation: [https://kubernetes.io/docs/](https://kubernetes.io/docs/) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.