open-consul/website/source/docs/compatibility.html.markdown

41 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
Raw Normal View History

2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
---
layout: "docs"
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
page_title: "Consul Protocol Compatibility Promise"
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
sidebar_current: "docs-upgrading-compatibility"
---
# Protocol Compatibility Promise
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
We expect Consul to run in large clusters as long-running agents. Because
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
upgrading agents in this sort of environment relies heavily on protocol
compatibility, this page makes it clear on our promise to keeping different
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
Consul versions compatible with each other.
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
We promise that every subsequent release of Consul will remain backwards
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
compatible with _at least_ one prior version. Concretely: version 0.5 can
speak to 0.4 (and vice versa), but may not be able to speak to 0.1.
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
The backwards compatibility must be explicitly enabled: Consul agents by
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
default will speak the latest protocol, but can be configured to speak earlier
ones. If speaking an earlier protocol, _new features may not be available_.
The ability for an agent to speak an earlier protocol is only so that they
can be upgraded without cluster disruption.
2014-02-19 01:37:23 +00:00
This compatibility guarantee makes it possible to upgrade Consul agents one
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
at a time, one version at a time. For more details on the specifics of
upgrading, see the [upgrading page](/docs/upgrading.html).
## Protocol Compatibility Table
<table class="table table-bordered table-striped">
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Protocol Compatibility</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>0.1</td>
<td>1</td>
2014-02-08 00:41:03 +00:00
</tr>
</table>