Consul on Kubernetes

Consul has many integrations with Kubernetes. You can deploy Consul to Kubernetes using the Helm chart or Consul K8s CLI, sync services between Consul and Kubernetes, run Consul Service Mesh, and more. This section documents the official integrations between Consul and Kubernetes.

Use Cases

Consul Service Mesh: Consul can automatically inject the Consul Service Mesh sidecar into pods so that they can accept and establish encrypted and authorized network connections with mutual TLS. And because Consul Service Mesh can run anywhere, pods and external services can communicate with each other over a fully encrypted connection.

Service sync to enable Kubernetes and non-Kubernetes services to communicate: Consul can sync Kubernetes services with its own service registry. This service sync allows Kubernetes services to use Kubernetes' native service discovery capabilities to discover and connect to external services registered in Consul, and for external services to use Consul service discovery to discover and connect to Kubernetes services.

Additional integrations: Consul can run directly on Kubernetes, so in addition to the native integrations provided by Consul itself, any other tool built for Kubernetes can leverage Consul.

Version compatibility

The following table describes the compatibility between Consul and Kubernetes versions.

Getting Started With Consul and Kubernetes

There are several ways to try Consul with Kubernetes in different environments.

Tutorials

• The Getting Started with Consul Service Mesh track provides guidance for installing Consul as service mesh for Kubernetes using the Helm chart, deploying services in the service mesh, and using intentions to secure service communications.

• The Migrate to Microservices with Consul Service Mesh on Kubernetes collection uses an example application written by a fictional company to illustrate why and how organizations can migrate from monolith to microservices using Consul service mesh on Kubernetes. The case study in this collection should provide information valuable for understanding how to develop services that leverage Consul during any stage of your microservices journey.

• The Consul and Minikube guide is a quick step-by-step guide for deploying Consul with the official Helm chart on a local instance of Minikube.

• Review production best practices and cloud-specific configurations for deploying Consul on managed Kubernetes runtimes.

  • The Consul on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) tutorial is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on AKS. The guide also allows you to practice deploying two microservices.
  • The Consul on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) tutorial is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on EKS. Additionally, it provides guidance on interacting with your datacenter with the Consul UI, CLI, and API.
  • The Consul on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) tutorial is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on GKE. Additionally, it provides guidance on interacting with your datacenter with the Consul UI, CLI, and API.

• The Consul and Kubernetes Reference Architecture guide provides recommended practices for production.

• The Consul and Kubernetes Deployment tutorial covers the necessary steps to install and configure a new Consul cluster on Kubernetes in production.

• The Secure Consul and Registered Services on Kubernetes tutorial covers the necessary steps to secure a Consul cluster running on Kubernetes in production.

• The Layer 7 Observability with Consul Service Mesh tutorial covers monitoring a Consul service mesh running on Kubernetes with Prometheus and Grafana.

Documentation

• Installing Consul covers how to install Consul using the Helm chart.
• Helm Chart Reference describes the different options for configuring the Helm chart.