Telepresence allows developers to run microservices locally while still connecting to a Kubernetes cluster. It creates a bi-directional tunnel between the local development environment and the cluster. This allows the local process to access environment variables and DNS from the cluster pod. As a demo, the presenter shows running a front-end service locally using Telepresence while it connects to backend services in the cluster. However, Telepresence is still maturing and has some limitations like only supporting swapping one service and potential network and DNS issues.

1. Microservices Development using
Telepresence
Vishal @vbanthia_
SET, Microservices Platform, MercariKubernetes Meetup Tokyo #11

2. Presentation: https://schd.ws/hosted_files/kccnceu18/b5/Telepresence_Kubeapps.pdf
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dl8U-AbJN0

3. Telepresence
“Fast, Local Development for Kubernetes & OpenShift
Microservices”

4. Problems with Microservices Development
gateway
service1
service2
service3 service4
Worker
db1
android
web
ios db4

5. Problems with Microservices Development ...
● Microservices count is not too much in this scenarios, developers can try
running everything locally
● They can maintain docker-compose file and use docker-compose for local
development
● Or use minikube and kubernetes manifest files

6. Ref: https://www.slideshare.net/BruceWong3/the-case-for-chaos

7. DEMO
Ref: https://microservices-demo.github.io/

9. user
carts
catalogue
db
front-end
orders
db
db
db
shipping
payment
master-queue
rabbitmq

10. user
carts
catalogue
db
front-end
orders
db
db
db
shipping
payment

11. Development Using Telepresence
● Run everything on cluster
● Only run front-end service on local
● Connect local service to cluster using

12. front-end k8s svc
type=LoadBalancer
front-end k8s deployment
(front-end docker image)
GKE Cluster
name=front-end
order user cart catalogue

13. front-end k8s svc
type=LoadBalancer
front-end k8s deployment
(front-end docker image)
GKE Cluster
name=front-end
order user cart catalogue
telepresence

14. front-end k8s svc
type=LoadBalancer
front-end k8s deployment
(telepresence k8s-proxy docker image)
GKE Cluster
name=front-end
order user cart catalogue
telepresence

15. front-end k8s svc
type=LoadBalancer
front-end k8s deployment
(telepresence k8s-proxy docker image)
GKE Cluster
name=front-end
order user cart catalogue
Local
local source code
local process
telepresence client
bi-directional tunnel
local process has
access to all env
variables, dns etc
of cluster pod

16. Limitations
● Telepresence is still not mature enough and has problems such as network
issues & DNS reliability
● It only allows swapping one service with VPN method
● https://www.telepresence.io/reference/limitations

17. Conclusion
● Telepresence can be very helpful in microservices development for complex
services
● Not just for development, it is very helpful for debugging bugs in dev/QA
environment. You only need to swap remote deployment and can add debug
more efficiently by running service locally
● Personally, I am pretty much impressed with its capability and would really
love to use it at work!

18. Thank You!