Consul Mesh Federation Deep Dive
summary
Consul 1.13 introduces cluster peering: a token-based gRPC peering over TCP port 8300 that exchanges service entries, TLS material, and heartbeats so remote services appear in the local service catalog (avoiding cross‑DC RPC). Services are advertised via exported services config entries, routed through sidecar proxies and mesh gateways (L4 mTLS between meshes, L7 terminate at gateways), and authorized with service intentions. Demo covers token generation/import, peering dialer/acceptor CRs on Kubernetes, import/export, unexporting, and roadmap items: Terraform, transparent proxy, and Vault for credentials.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction to Consul Mesh Federation
- 2:07Limitations of WAN Federation
- 5:23Introducing Cluster Peering
- 6:46Key Terms Explained
- 8:31Peering Setup Walkthrough
- 11:43Technical Deep Dive
- 16:23Service Advertisement
- 18:31Connecting to Peered Services
- 20:35TLS and Trust Between Clusters
- 22:01Service Authorization
- 23:29Removing Peering Sessions
- 25:16Summary and Future Updates
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