This topic provides an overview of Consul Dataplane, a lightweight process for managing Envoy proxies introduced in Consul v1.14.0. Consul Dataplane removes the need to run client agents on every node in a cluster for service discovery and service mesh. Instead, Consul deploys sidecar proxies that provide lower latency, support additional runtimes, and integrate with cloud infrastructure providers.
Consul Dataplane requires servers running Consul v1.14-beta+.
Consul Dataplane requires servers running Consul v1.14.0-beta1+.
## What is Consul Dataplane?
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Consul Dataplane manages Envoy proxies and leaves responsibility for other funct
**Simplified set up**: Because there are no client agents to engage in gossip, you do not have to generate and distribute a gossip encryption key to agents during the initial bootstrapping process. Securing agent communication also becomes simpler, with fewer tokens to track, distribute, and rotate.
**Additional environment and runtime support**: Current Consul on Kubernetes deployments require using `hostPorts` and `DaemonSets` for client agents, which limits Consul’s ability to be deployed in environments where those features are not supported. As a result, Consul Dataplane supports AWS Fargate and GKE Autopilot, as well as runtimes that mix Kubernetes and VM deployments.
**Additional environment and runtime support**: Current Consul on Kubernetes deployments require using `hostPorts` and `DaemonSets` for client agents, which limits Consul’s ability to be deployed in environments where those features are not supported. As a result, Consul Dataplane supports AWS Fargate and GKE Autopilot.
**Easier upgrades**: With Consul Dataplane, updating Consul to a new version no longer requires upgrading client agents. Consul Dataplane also has better compatibility across Consul server versions, so the process to upgrade Consul servers becomes easier.
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ To get started with Consul Dataplane, use the following reference resources:
- For `consul-dataplane` commands and usage examples, including required flags for startup, refer to the [`consul-dataplane` CLI reference](/consul/docs/dataplane/consul-dataplane).
- For Helm chart information, refer to the [Helm Chart reference](/consul/docs/k8s/helm).
- For Envoy, Consul, and Consul Dataplane version compatibility, refer to the [Envoy compatibility matrix](/consul/docs/k8s/compatibility).
- For Envoy, Consul, and Consul Dataplane version compatibility, refer to the [Envoy compatibility matrix](/docs/connect/procies/envoy).
## Beta release features
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- Metrics and telemetry are not currently available for services deployed with Dataplane.
- Consul API Gateway is not currently supported.
- Transparent proxies are not supported.
- Secrets Discovery Service (SDS) is not supported.
- If using EKS Fargate, we recommend that you use external Consul servers.
Jeff Boruszak
2 years ago
committed by