diff --git a/bootstrap.sh b/bootstrap.sh
index 40e26ad7ce0..91d30e535b3 100755
--- a/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/bootstrap.sh
@@ -172,13 +172,13 @@ function install_k3s() {
 
   case $(uname) in
     Linux)  local platform=linux;;
-    *)   echo "ERROR: unsupported platform. K3s only supports running on Linux"; exit 1;;
+    *)   echo "WARNING: unsupported platform. K3s only supports running on Linux, the k8s topology will not be available for local examples."; return;;
   esac
 
   case $(get_arch) in
       aarch64)  local target="-arm64";;
       x86_64)  local target="";;
-      *)   echo "ERROR: unsupported architecture"; exit 1;;
+      *)   echo "WARNING: unsupported architecture, the k8s topology will not be available for local examples."; return;;
   esac
 
   download_url=https://github.com/rancher/k3s/releases/download
@@ -191,7 +191,6 @@ function install_k3s() {
 }
 command -v  k3s || install_dep "k3s" "v1.0.0" "$VTROOT/dist/k3s" install_k3s
 
-
 # Download and install consul, link consul binary into our root.
 function install_consul() {
   local version="$1"
diff --git a/examples/local/scripts/k3s-up.sh b/examples/local/scripts/k3s-up.sh
index 3b77600018e..eb8530f15d8 100755
--- a/examples/local/scripts/k3s-up.sh
+++ b/examples/local/scripts/k3s-up.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,17 @@ script_root=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
 # shellcheck disable=SC1091
 source ./env.sh
 
+case $(uname) in
+  Linux) ;;
+  *) echo "WARNING: unsupported platform. K3s only supports running on Linux, the k8s topology is available for local examples."; exit 1;;
+esac
+
+case $(uname -m) in
+    aarch64) ;;
+    x86_64) ;;
+    *) echo "ERROR: unsupported architecture, the k8s topology is not available for local examples."; exit 1;;
+esac
+
 k3s server --disable-agent --data-dir "${VTDATAROOT}/k3s/" --https-listen-port "${K8S_PORT}" --write-kubeconfig "${K8S_KUBECONFIG}" > "${VTDATAROOT}"/tmp/k3s.out 2>&1 &
 PID=$!
 echo $PID > "${VTDATAROOT}/tmp/k3s.pid"