consul

service discovery and configuration tool

TLDR

Start agent in development mode

$ consul agent -dev

List datacenter members

$ consul members

Register service

$ consul services register [service.json]

Deregister service

$ consul services deregister -id=[service-id]

List services in catalog

$ consul catalog services

DNS lookup for service

$ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 [web.service.consul]

Store key-value pair

$ consul kv put [key] [value]

Get key-value

$ consul kv get [key]

Join cluster

$ consul join [192.168.1.100]

Validate configuration files

$ consul validate [/etc/consul.d/]

Reload agent configuration

$ consul reload

SYNOPSIS

consul [options] command [arguments]

consul is HashiCorp's service discovery and configuration tool. It provides service mesh, health checking, key/value storage, multi-datacenter support, and secure service-to-service communication.

PARAMETERS

-dev

Development mode (single node, no persistence)

-server

Run agent in server mode

-bind addr

Address for internal cluster communications (default: 0.0.0.0)

-token token

ACL token for authentication

-token-file file

File containing the ACL token

-datacenter dc

Target datacenter

-http-addr addr

Consul HTTP API address

-auto-reload-config

Automatically reload configuration when files change

CONFIGURATION

/etc/consul.d/

Configuration directory for Consul agent settings, services, and checks in HCL or JSON format.

COMMANDS

agent

Run a Consul agent

members

List cluster members

join

Join cluster via agent address

leave

Gracefully leave cluster

catalog

Interact with service catalog

services

Register/deregister services

Key/value store operations

connect

Service mesh functionality

acl

Access control list management

watch

Watch for changes in data views and invoke a process

event

Fire a custom user event

exec

Remote execution on cluster nodes

operator

Cluster-level operator tools

snapshot

Save/restore cluster state

reload

Reload agent configuration files

validate

Validate configuration files

monitor

Stream logs from a running agent

debug

Create debugging archive

ENVIRONMENT

CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR

HTTP API address

CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN

ACL token

CONSUL_CACERT

CA certificate path

CONSUL_HTTP_SSL

Use HTTPS when communicating with Consul

DNS INTERFACE

Default DNS port: 8600

$ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 web.service.consul

INSTALL

sudo pacman -S consul

nix profile install nixpkgs#consul

CAVEATS

ACL system requires token for most operations when enabled. Development mode stores everything in memory. Production requires proper clustering configuration.