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---
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layout: docs
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page_title: Consul Enterprise
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description: >-
Consul Enterprise features a number of capabilities beyond the open source
offering that may be beneficial in certain workflows.
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---
# Consul Enterprise
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[Consul Enterprise](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/consul/)
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features address the organizational complexities of collaboration, operations, scale, and governance.
If you have purchased or wish to try out Consul Enterprise,
refer to [how to access Consul Enterprise](#access-consul-enterprise).
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## Enterprise Features
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The following features are [available in several forms of Consul Enterprise](#consul-enterprise-feature-availability).
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### Multi-Tenancy
- [Admin Partitions](/docs/enterprise/admin-partitions): Define administrative boundaries between tenants within a single Consul datacenter
- [Namespaces](/docs/enterprise/namespaces): Define resource boundaries within a single admin partition for further organizational flexibility
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### Resiliency
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- [Automated Backups](/docs/enterprise/backups): Configure the automatic backup of Consul state
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- [Redundancy Zones](/docs/enterprise/redundancy): Deploy backup voting Consul servers to efficiently improve Consul fault tolerance
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### Scalability
- [Read Replicas](/docs/enterprise/read-scale): Deploy non-voting Consul servers to enhance the scalability of read requests
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### Operational Simplification
- [Automated Upgrades](/docs/enterprise/upgrades): Ease upgrades by automating the transition from existing to newly deployed Consul servers
- [Consul-Terraform-Sync Enterprise](/docs/nia/enterprise): Leverage the enhanced network infrastructure automation capabilities of the enterprise version of Consul-Terraform-Sync
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### Complex Network Topology Support
- [Network Areas](/docs/enterprise/federation): Support complex network topologies between federated Consul datacenters with pairwise federation rather than full mesh federation
- [Network Segments](/docs/enterprise/network-segments): Support complex network topologies within a Consul datacenter by enforcing boundaries in Consul client gossip traffic
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### Governance
- [OIDC Auth Method](/docs/security/acl/auth-methods/oidc): Manage user access to Consul through an OIDC identity provider instead of Consul ACL tokens directly
- [Audit Logging](/docs/enterprise/audit-logging): Understand Consul access and usage patterns by reviewing access to the Consul HTTP API
- [Sentinel for KV](/docs/enterprise/sentinel): Policy-as-code framework for defining advanced key-value storage access control policies
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## Access Consul Enterprise
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The method of accessing Consul Enterprise and its features depends on the whether using
HashiCorp Cloud Platform or self-managed Consul.
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### HCP Consul
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No action is required to access Consul Enterprise in a
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[HashiCorp Cloud Platform](https://cloud.hashicorp.com/products/consul) installation.
You can try out HCP Consul for free. Refer to the
[HCP Consul product page](https://cloud.hashicorp.com/products/consul) for more details.
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### Self-Managed Consul
To access Consul Enterprise in a self-managed installation,
[apply a purchased license](/docs/enterprise/license/overview)
to the Consul Enterprise binary that grants access to the desired features.
You can also try out Consul Enterprise before purchasing by
[requesting a 30-day trial license](https://consul.io/trial).
## Consul Enterprise Feature Availability
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Consul Enterprise is offered in several forms that provide a different mix of enterprise features.
Choose the form that best suits the needs of your organization.
Available enterprise features per Consul form and license include:
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| Feature | [HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) Consul] | [Consul Enterprise] | Legacy Consul Enterprise (module-based) |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Consul servers as a managed service | Yes | No (self-managed) | No (self-managed) |
| [Admin Partitions](/docs/enterprise/admin-partitions) | All tiers | Yes | With Governance and Policy module |
| [Namespaces](/docs/enterprise/namespaces) | All tiers | Yes | With Governance and Policy module |
| [Automated Backups](/docs/enterprise/backups) | All tiers | Yes | Yes |
| [Redundancy Zones](/docs/enterprise/redundancy) | Not applicable | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module |
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| [Read Replicas](/docs/enterprise/read-scale) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module |
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| [Automated Upgrades](/docs/enterprise/upgrades) | All tiers | Yes | Yes |
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| [Consul-Terraform-Sync Enterprise](/docs/nia/enterprise) | All tiers | Yes | Yes |
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| [Network Areas](/docs/enterprise/federation) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module |
| [Network Segments](/docs/enterprise/network-segments) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module |
| [OIDC Auth Method](/docs/acl/auth-methods/oidc) | No | Yes | Yes |
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| [Audit Logging](/docs/enterprise/audit-logging) | Standard tier and above | Yes | With Governance and Policy module |
| [Sentinel for KV](/docs/enterprise/sentinel) | All tiers | Yes | With Governance and Policy module |
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[HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) Consul]: https://cloud.hashicorp.com/products/consul
[Consul Enterprise]: https://www.hashicorp.com/products/consul/
