Merge pull request #785 from ryanbreen/join-doc

Website: substantial rewrite of intro/getting-started/join.html
This commit is contained in:
Ryan Breen 2015-03-16 14:54:38 -04:00
commit 9b3e9673b0
2 changed files with 105 additions and 50 deletions

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@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ $ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 Armons-MacBook-Air.node.consul
Armons-MacBook-Air.node.consul. 0 IN A 10.1.10.38
```
## Stopping the Agent
## <a name="stopping"></a>Stopping the Agent
You can use `Ctrl-C` (the interrupt signal) to gracefully halt the agent.
After interrupting the agent, you should see it leave the cluster
@ -130,5 +130,5 @@ and remove servers.
## Next Steps
Your simple Consul cluster is up and running. Let's give it some
Your simple Consul cluster is up and running. Let's give it some
[services](services.html)!

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@ -3,19 +3,18 @@ layout: "intro"
page_title: "Consul Cluster"
sidebar_current: "gettingstarted-join"
description: |-
By this point, we've started our first agent and registered and queried one or more services on that agent. This showed how easy it is to use Consul, but didn't show how this could be extended to a scalable production service discovery infrastructure. On this page, we'll create our first real cluster with multiple members.
We've started our first agent and registered and queried a service on that agent. This showed how easy it is to use Consul but didn't show how this could be extended to a scalable, production-grade service discovery infrastructure. In this step, we'll create our first real cluster with multiple members.
---
# Consul Cluster
By this point, we've started our first agent and registered and queried
one or more services on that agent. This showed how easy it is to use
Consul, but didn't show how this could be extended to a scalable production
service discovery infrastructure. On this page, we'll create our first
real cluster with multiple members.
We've started our first agent and registered and queried a service on that
agent. This showed how easy it is to use Consul but didn't show how this could
be extended to a scalable, production-grade service discovery infrastructure.
In this step, we'll create our first real cluster with multiple members.
When a Consul agent is started, it begins without knowledge of any other node,
and is an isolated cluster of one. To learn about other cluster members, the
When a Consul agent is started, it begins without knowledge of any other node:
it is an isolated cluster of one. To learn about other cluster members, the
agent must _join_ an existing cluster. To join an existing cluster, it only
needs to know about a _single_ existing member. After it joins, the agent will
gossip with this member and quickly discover the other members in the cluster.
@ -23,59 +22,97 @@ A Consul agent can join any other agent, not just agents in server mode.
## Starting the Agents
To simulate a more realistic cluster, we are using a two node cluster in
Vagrant. The Vagrantfile can be found in the demo section of the repo
[here](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/tree/master/demo/vagrant-cluster).
To simulate a more realistic cluster, we will start a two node cluster via
[Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/). The Vagrantfile we will be using can
be found in the [demo section of the Consul repo]
(https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/tree/master/demo/vagrant-cluster).
We start the first agent on our first node and also specify a node name.
The node name must be unique and is how a machine is uniquely identified.
By default it is the hostname of the machine, but we'll manually override it.
We are also providing a bind address. This is the address that Consul listens on,
and it *must* be accessible by all other nodes in the cluster. The first node
will act as our server in this cluster. We're still not making a cluster
of servers.
We first boot our two nodes:
```text
$ consul agent -server -bootstrap-expect 1 -data-dir /tmp/consul \
-node=agent-one -bind=172.20.20.10
$ vagrant up
```
Once the systems are available, we can ssh into them to begin configuration
of our cluster. We start by logging in to the first node:
```text
$ vagrant ssh n1
```
Each node in a cluster must have a unique name. By default, Consul uses the
hostname of the machine, but we'll manually override it using the [`-node`
command-line option](/docs/agent/options.html#_node).
We will also specify a [`bind` address](/docs/agent/options.html#_bind):
this is the address that Consul listens on, and it *must* be accessible by
all other nodes in the cluster. While a `bind` address is not strictly
necessary (Consul will by default listen on the first private IP on a
system), it's always best to provide one. Production servers often have
multiple interfaces, so specifying a `bind` address insures that you will
never bind Consul to the wrong interface.
The first node will act as our sole server in this cluster, and we indicate
this with the [`server` switch](/docs/agent/options.html#_server).
All together, these settings yield a
[`consul agent`](/docs/commands/agent.html) command like this:
```text
vagrant@n1:~$ consul agent -server -bootstrap-expect 1 \
-data-dir /tmp/consul -node=agent-one -bind=172.20.20.10
...
```
Then, in another terminal, start the second agent on the new node.
This time, we set the bind address to match the IP of the second node
as specified in the Vagrantfile. In production, you will generally want
to provide a bind address or interface as well.
Now, in another terminal, we will connect to the second node:
```text
$ consul agent -data-dir /tmp/consul -node=agent-two -bind=172.20.20.11
$ vagrant ssh n2
```
This time, we set the [`bind` address](/docs/agent/options.html#_bind)
address to match the IP of the second node as specified in the Vagrantfile
and the [`node` name](/docs/agent/options.html#_node) to be `agent-two`.
Since this node will not be a Consul server, we don't provide a
[`server` switch](/docs/agent/options.html#_server).
All together, these settings yield a
[`consul agent`](/docs/commands/agent.html) command like this:
```text
vagrant@n2:~$ consul agent -data-dir /tmp/consul -node=agent-two \
-bind=172.20.20.11
...
```
At this point, you have two Consul agents running, one server and one client.
The two Consul agents still don't know anything about each other, and are each part of their own
clusters (of one member). You can verify this by running `consul members`
against each agent and noting that only one member is a part of each.
At this point, you have two Consul agents running: one server and one client.
The two Consul agents still don't know anything about each other and are each
part of their own single-node clusters. You can verify this by running
[`consul members`](/docs/commands/members.html) against each agent and noting
that only one member is visible to each agent.
## Joining a Cluster
Now, let's tell the first agent to join the second agent by running
the following command in a new terminal:
Now, we'll tell the first agent to join the second agent by running
the following commands in a new terminal:
```text
$ consul join 172.20.20.11
$ vagrant ssh n1
...
vagrant@n1:~$ consul join 172.20.20.11
Successfully joined cluster by contacting 1 nodes.
```
You should see some log output in each of the agent logs. If you read
carefully, you'll see that they received join information. If you
run `consul members` against each agent, you'll see that both agents now
know about each other:
run [`consul members`](/docs/commands/members.html) against each agent,
you'll see that both agents now know about each other:
```text
$ consul members -detailed
Node Address Status Tags
agent-one 172.20.20.10:8301 alive role=consul,dc=dc1,vsn=2,vsn_min=1,vsn_max=2,port=8300,bootstrap=1
agent-two 172.20.20.11:8301 alive role=node,dc=dc1,vsn=2,vsn_min=1,vsn_max=2
vagrant@n2:~$ consul members
Node Address Status Type Build Protocol
agent-two 172.20.20.11:8301 alive client 0.5.0 2
agent-one 172.20.20.10:8301 alive server 0.5.0 2
```
-> **Remember:** To join a cluster, a Consul agent only needs to
@ -83,17 +120,29 @@ learn about <em>one existing member</em>. After joining the cluster, the
agents gossip with each other to propagate full membership information.
## Auto-joining a Cluster on Start
Ideally whenever a new node is brought up in your datacenter, it should automatically join the Consul cluster without human intervention. To accomplish this, you can use [Atlas by HashiCorp](https://atlas.hashicorp.com?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started-join&utm_campaign=consul) and the [`-atlas-join` flag](/docs/agent/options.html#_atlas_join). An example configuration is shown below:
Ideally, whenever a new node is brought up in your datacenter, it should
automatically join the Consul cluster without human intervention. To
accomplish this, you can use
[Atlas by HashiCorp](https://atlas.hashicorp.com?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started-join&utm_campaign=consul)
and the [`-atlas-join` flag](/docs/agent/options.html#_atlas_join).
An example configuration is shown below:
```text
$ consul agent -atlas-join \
-atlas=ATLAS_USERNAME/infrastructure \
-atlas-token="YOUR_ATLAS_TOKEN"
```
To get an Atlas username and token, [create an account here](https://atlas.hashicorp.com/account/new?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started-join&utm_campaign=consul) and replace the respective values in your Consul configuration with your credentials. Now whenever a new node comes up with a Consul agent, it automatically joins your Consul cluster without any hardcoded configurations.
To get an Atlas username and token,
[create an account](https://atlas.hashicorp.com/account/new?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started-join&utm_campaign=consul)
and replace the respective values in your Consul configuration with your
credentials. Now, whenever a new node comes up with a Consul agent, it
will automatically join your Consul cluster without any hardcoded
configuration.
Alternatively, you can use the [`-join` flag](http://www.consul.io/docs/agent/options.html#_join)
with a hardcoded address of a known Consul agent to join a cluster.
Alternatively, you can join a cluster at startup using the
[`-join` flag](http://www.consul.io/docs/agent/options.html#_join) or
[`start_join` setting](http://www.consul.io/docs/agent/options.html#start_join)
with hardcoded addresses of other known Consul agents.
## Querying Nodes
@ -104,10 +153,11 @@ For the DNS API, the structure of the names is `NAME.node.consul` or
`NAME.node.DATACENTER.consul`. If the datacenter is omitted, Consul
will only search the local datacenter.
From "agent-one", query "agent-two":
For example, from "agent-one", we can query for the address of the
node "agent-two":
```
$ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 agent-two.node.consul
vagrant@n1:~$ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 agent-two.node.consul
...
;; QUESTION SECTION:
@ -119,13 +169,18 @@ agent-two.node.consul. 0 IN A 172.20.20.11
The ability to look up nodes in addition to services is incredibly
useful for system administration tasks. For example, knowing the address
of the node to SSH into is as easy as making it part of the Consul cluster
and querying it.
of the node to SSH into is as easy as making the node a part of the
Consul cluster and querying it.
## Leaving a Cluster
To leave the cluster, you can either gracefully quit an agent (using
`Ctrl-C`) or force kill one of the agents. Gracefully leaving allows
the node to transition into the _left_ state, otherwise other nodes
the node to transition into the _left_ state; otherwise, other nodes
will detect it as having _failed_. The difference is covered
in more detail [here](/intro/getting-started/agent.html#toc_3).
in more detail [here](/intro/getting-started/agent.html#stopping).
## Next Steps
We now have a multi-node Consul cluster up and running. Let's make
our services more robust by giving them [health checks](checks.html)!