Consul 1.9 Release Highlights

Below are resources and Learn tutorials for Consul 1.9.

Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)

CRDs to allow practitioners to easily configure Consul via Kubernetes-style objects. Specifically, we are providing the ability to manage Consul service mesh configuration entries for services via CRDs.

Use CRDS to register application-aware intentions, and other Consul config entries.

Service load balancing with Envoy

Consul 1.9 introduces the ability to change the load balancing policy used by the Envoy data plane proxy by specifying the desired algorithm with Consul configuration entries.

Load balancing policies apply to both requests from internal services inside the service mesh, and requests from external clients accessing services in your datacenter through an ingress gateway.

Try the new hands-on lab to test different load balancing policies.

Application aware intentions

Application aware (Layer 7) intentions give you the ability to construct policies which, in addition to service identity, evaluate application-layer information such as HTTP Path, Headers, or Method when authorizing HTTP-based service-to-service communication.

Get started with application-aware intentions as Kubernetes CRDs.

Service mesh visualization

The Consul UI now has a topology tab that shows an overview of how services connect with one other, with connection-specific metrics like error rates, success rates, and timing overlaid on top. The UI will also include deep linking into your external metrics dashboards.

Discover the new service mesh visualization.

Download Consul 1.9

To get started, download the Consul 1.9 binary.