consul

Consul

Consul is a service networking solution to connect and configure services across any runtime platform and public or private cloud. This stack runs the official Consul container image for service discovery, service mesh, and key-value storage.

How it works

flowchart LR
    Dev([Developer]) -->|consul kv put| Consul[Consul Container]
    Config[(./config/*.json)] -->|mounted at /workspace| Consul
    Consul -->|8500| UI[Web UI]
    Consul -->|Service Discovery| Services[Services]

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sequenceDiagram
    participant Dev as Developer
    participant Consul as Consul Container
    participant Vol as ./config (Volume)
    participant UI as Web UI

    Dev->>Consul: docker compose up -d
    Consul->>Consul: Start agent in dev mode
    Dev->>UI: Open http://localhost:8500
    UI-->>Dev: Consul UI
    Dev->>Consul: docker compose exec consul kv put key value
    Consul->>Vol: Store data
    Consul-->>Dev: Success

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1. Consul starts in development mode for easy testing.
2. Web UI is accessible at http://localhost:8500.
3. Use docker compose exec to run Consul commands.
4. Configuration files can be placed in config/ for persistence.
5. Provides service discovery, health checking, KV store, and service mesh capabilities.

Stack details in this repo

• Image: hashicorp/consul:latest
• Persistent data:
  • ./config/ — maps to /consul/data (Consul data directory)
• Exposed ports:
  • 8500 — HTTP API and Web UI

How to run

From the repository root:

cd consul
docker compose up -d

Useful commands:

docker compose exec consul consul members
docker compose exec consul consul kv put mykey myvalue
docker compose exec consul consul kv get mykey
docker compose logs -f
docker compose down

Notes

• This runs Consul in development mode, which is not suitable for production.
• For production deployments, you'll want to configure a proper cluster with persistent storage.
• Place any Consul configuration files in the config/ directory.
• Access the Web UI at http://localhost:8500