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Deploy Consul client agent on Docker

This topic provides an overview for deploying a Consul client when running Consul on Docker containers.

Deploy and run a Consul client

After you deploy one or more server agents, you can deploy a containerized Consul client agent that joins the datacenter. Do not use detached mode. That way you can reference the client logs later.

The following command deploys a Docker container and instructs it to join the Consul cluster by including a Consul server's hostname or IP address in the retry-join parameter.

$ docker run --name=consul-client hashicorp/consul consul agent -node=consul-client -data-dir=/consul/data -retry-join=consul-server
==> Starting Consul agent...
               Version: '1.21.2'
            Build Date: '2025-06-18 08:16:39 +0000 UTC'
               Node ID: '63a0c0ae-4762-2fa5-4b70-1cf526a1395b'
             Node name: 'consul-client'
            Datacenter: 'dc1' (Segment: '')
                Server: false (Bootstrap: false)
           Client Addr: [127.0.0.1] (HTTP: 8500, HTTPS: -1, gRPC: -1, gRPC-TLS: -1, DNS: 8600)
          Cluster Addr: consul-server (LAN: 8301, WAN: 8302)
     Gossip Encryption: false
      Auto-Encrypt-TLS: false
           ACL Enabled: false
    ACL Default Policy: allow
             HTTPS TLS: Verify Incoming: false, Verify Outgoing: false, Min Version: TLSv1_2
              gRPC TLS: Verify Incoming: false, Min Version: TLSv1_2
      Internal RPC TLS: Verify Incoming: false, Verify Outgoing: false (Verify Hostname: false), Min Version: TLSv1_2

==> Log data will now stream in as it occurs:

2025-07-22T23:16:33.667Z [INFO]  agent.client.serf.lan: serf: EventMemberJoin: consul-client consul-server
2025-07-22T23:16:33.667Z [INFO]  agent.router: Initializing LAN area manager
2025-07-22T23:16:33.667Z [INFO]  agent: Started DNS server: address=127.0.0.1:8600 network=udp
2025-07-22T23:16:33.667Z [INFO]  agent: Started DNS server: address=127.0.0.1:8600 network=tcp
2025-07-22T23:16:33.667Z [INFO]  agent: Starting server: address=127.0.0.1:8500 network=tcp protocol=http
2025-07-22T23:16:33.668Z [INFO]  agent: started state syncer
2025-07-22T23:16:33.668Z [INFO]  agent: Retry join is supported for the following discovery methods: cluster=LAN discovery_methods="aliyun aws azure digitalocean gce hcp k8s linode mdns os packet scaleway softlayer tencentcloud triton vsphere"
2025-07-22T23:16:33.668Z [INFO]  agent: Joining cluster...: cluster=LAN
2025-07-22T23:16:33.668Z [INFO]  agent: (LAN) joining: lan_addresses=["consul-server"]
2025-07-22T23:16:33.668Z [INFO]  agent: Consul agent running!

##...

2022-12-15T18:59:46.454Z [INFO]  agent: Synced node info

In a new terminal session, run the consul members command in the Consul client container to confirm the agent joined the datacenter.

$  docker exec consul-client consul members

Node           Address          Status  Type    Build   Protocol  DC   Partition  Segment
consul-server  172.17.0.2:8301  alive   server  1.21.2  2         dc1  default    <all>
consul-client  172.17.0.3:8301  alive   client  1.21.2  2         dc1  default    <default>

The output confirms that the client joined the cluster, and is ready to accept service definitions.

Multi-agent Consul deployment

You can start a multi-agent Consul deployment with multiple client containers. The following example uses a Docker compose file to start three Consul client containers that try to connect to a Consul server consul-server1. For more information about starting a Consul server cluster, see Deploy Consul server agents on Docker.

consul-clients.yml

version: '3.7'
services:
  consul-client1:
    image: hashicorp/consul:1.21.3
    container_name: consul-client1
    restart: always
    networks:
      - consul
    command: "agent -node=consul-client1 -client=0.0.0.0 -data-dir='/consul/data' -retry-join=consul-server1"
  consul-client2:
    image: hashicorp/consul:1.21.3
    container_name: consul-client2
    restart: always
    networks:
      - consul
    command: "agent -node=consul-client2 -client=0.0.0.0 -data-dir='/consul/data' -retry-join=consul-server1"
  consul-client3:
    image: hashicorp/consul:1.21.3
    container_name: consul-client3
    restart: always
    networks:
      - consul
    command: "agent -node=consul-client3 -client=0.0.0.0 -data-dir='/consul/data' -retry-join=consul-server1"
networks:
  consul:
    driver: bridge

You can start the cluster with the following command:

$ docker-compose -f consul-clients.yml up -d
[+] Running 4/4
 ✔ Network docker_consul     Created                                0.0s
 ✔ Container consul-client3  Started                                0.2s
 ✔ Container consul-client1  Started                                0.2s
 ✔ Container consul-client2  Started                                0.2s

This command starts the three Consul client containers in detached mode. Each client is configured to join the cluster by retrying to connect to consul-server1.

You can verify the status of the cluster by executing the consul members command inside any of the client containers:

$ docker exec consul-client1 consul members
Node            Address          Status  Type    Build   Protocol  DC   Partition  Segment
consul-server1  172.19.0.2:8301  alive   server  1.21.3  2         dc1  default    <all>
consul-client1  172.19.0.3:8301  alive   client  1.21.3  2         dc1  default    <default>
consul-client2  172.19.0.4:8301  alive   client  1.21.3  2         dc1  default    <default>
consul-client3  172.19.0.5:8301  alive   client  1.21.3  2         dc1  default    <default>