connections, automatically wrapping and verifying TLS connections.
---
# Connect Configuration
# Service Mesh Configuration
There are many configuration options exposed for Connect. The only option
that must be set is the "enabled" option on Consul Servers to enable Connect.
There are many configuration options exposed for Consul service mesh. The only option
that must be set is the `connect.enabled` option on Consul servers to enable Consul service mesh.
All other configurations are optional and have reasonable defaults.
-> **Tip:** Connect is enabled by default when running Consul in
Consul Connect is the component shipped with Consul that enables service mesh functionality. The terms _Consul Connect_ and _Consul service mesh_ are used interchangeably throughout this documentation.
-> **Tip:** Service mesh is enabled by default when running Consul in
dev mode with `consul agent -dev`.
## Agent Configuration
The first step to use Connect is to enable Connect for your Consul
Begin by enabling Connect for your Consul
cluster. By default, Connect is disabled. Enabling Connect requires changing
the configuration of only your Consul _servers_ (not client agents). To enable
Connect, add the following to a new or existing
[server configuration file](/docs/agent/config/config-files). In an existing cluster, this configuration change requires a Consul server restart, which you can perform one server at a time to maintain availability. In HCL:
<CodeTabs heading="Enable Consul service mesh" tabs={[ "HCL", "JSON" ]}>
```hcl
connect {
enabled = true
}
```
```json
"connect": {
"enabled": true
}
```
</CodeTabs>
This will enable Connect and configure your Consul cluster to use the
built-in certificate authority for creating and managing certificates.
and performance, intention and certificate authority replication.
---
# How Connect Works
# How Service Mesh Works
This page details the inner workings of some of Connect's core features.
Understanding how these features work isn't a prerequisite for using Connect,
but will help you build a mental model of what's going on under the hood, which
may help you reason about Connect's behavior in more complex deployment
scenarios.
This topic describes how many of the core features of Consul's service mesh functionality works.
It is not a prerequisite,
but this information will help you understand how Consul service mesh behaves in more complex scenarios.
To try Connect locally, complete the [Getting Started with Consul service
Consul Connect is the component shipped with Consul that enables service mesh functionality. The terms _Consul Connect_ and _Consul service mesh_ are used interchangeably throughout this documentation.
To try service mesh locally, complete the [Getting Started with Consul service
Karl Cardenas
3 years ago
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