Book Image

Simplifying Service Management with Consul

By : Robert E. Jackson
Book Image

Simplifying Service Management with Consul

By: Robert E. Jackson

Overview of this book

Within the elastic and dynamic nature of cloud computing, efficient and accurate service discovery provides the cornerstone for all communications. HashiCorp Consul facilitates this service discovery efficiently and securely, independent of the operating environment. This book will help you build a solid understanding of both the concepts and applications of HashiCorp Consul. You'll begin by finding out what you can do with Consul, focusing on the conceptual views of configuration samples along with Terraform code to expedite lab environment and hands-on experimentation, which will enable you to apply Consul effectively in your everyday lives. As you advance, you'll learn how to set up your own Consul cluster and agents in a single datacenter or location and understand how Consul utilizes RAFT and GOSSIP protocols for communication. You'll also explore the practical applications of primary Consul use cases, including communication flows and configuration and code examples. With that knowledge, you'll extend Consul across datacenters to discuss the applicability of multiple regions, multiple clouds, and hybrid cloud environments. By the end of this Consul book, you will have the tools needed to create and operate your own Consul cluster and be able to facilitate your service discovery and communication.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
1
Section 1: Consul Use Cases and Architecture
6
Section 2: Use Cases Deep Dive

Meshing with Kubernetes

Throughout this entire chapter, I've only mentioned Kubernetes once, and that was in passing. This is partly due to my loathness of Kubernetes and the number of hours I've struggled with the technology. However, service orchestrators such as Kubernetes (or Nomad) definitely have a place in the world of service mesh. In fact, many people don't think about service mesh unless it is within the realm of one of these application orchestration tools. We aren't going to get into the details of Kubernetes for a number of reasons (some of which I've already mentioned). However, I do want to address why service mesh is so important within this arena.

Application orchestration provides an entire operating environment in which our applications reside. Once deployed within the environment, the primary job of the orchestrator is to ensure that the desired number of instances are operating and that the resources are being managed. The application...