--- layout: docs page_title: 'Configuration Entry Kind: Proxy Defaults' description: >- The proxy-defaults config entry kind allows for configuring global config defaults across all services for Connect proxy configuration. Currently, only one global entry is supported. --- # Proxy Defaults The `proxy-defaults` configuration entry (`ProxyDefaults` on Kubernetes) allows you to configure global defaults across all services for Connect proxy configurations. Only one global entry is supported. ## Introduction You can customize some service registration settings for service mesh sidecar proxies centrally using the `proxy-defaults` configuration entry in the `kind` field. You can still override this centralized configuration for specific services with the [`service-defaults`](/docs/connect/config-entries/service-defaults) configuration entry `kind` or for individual proxy instances in their [sidecar service definitions](/docs/connect/registration/sidecar-service). ## Requirements The following Consul binaries are supported: * Consul 1.8.4+ on Kubernetes. * Consul 1.5.0+ on other platforms. ## Usage 1. Verify that your datacenter meets the conditions specified in the [Requirements](#requirements). 1. Determine the settings you want to implement (see [Configuration](#configuration)). You can create a file containing the configuration or pass them to the state store directly to apply the configuration. 1. Apply the configuration using one of the following methods: - Kubernetes CRD: Refer to the [Custom Resource Definitions](/docs/k8s/crds) documentation for details. - Issue the `consul config write` command: Refer to the [Consul Config Write](/commands/config/write) documentation for details. ## Configuration Configure the following parameters to define a `proxy-defaults` configuration entry: ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Meta { = "" } Config { = } Mode = "" TransparentProxy { OutboundListenerPort = DialedDirectly = } MeshGateway { Mode = "" } Expose { Checks = Paths = [ { Path = "" LocalPathPort = ListenerPort = Protocol = "" } ] } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global spec: meta: : config: : mode: transparentProxy: outboundListenerPort: dialedDirectly: meshGateway: mode: expose: checks: paths: - path: localPathPort: listenerPort: protocol:= ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Meta": { "": "" }, "Config": { "": }, "Mode": "", "TransparentProxy": { "OutboundListenerPort": , "DialedDirectly": }, "MeshGateway": { "Mode": = "" }, "Expose": { "Checks": , "Paths": [ { "Path": "", "LocalPathPort": , "ListenerPort": , "Protocol": "" } ] } } ``` -> **NOTE:** The `proxy-defaults` config entry can only be created in the `default` namespace and it will configure proxies in **all** namespaces. ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Namespace = "default" # Can only be set to "default". Meta { = "" } Config { = } Mode = "" TransparentProxy { OutboundListenerPort = DialedDirectly = } MeshGateway { Mode = "" } Expose { Checks = Paths = [ { Path = "" LocalPathPort = ListenerPort = Protocol = "" } ] } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global namespace: default spec: meta: : config: : mode: transparentProxy: outboundListenerPort: dialedDirectly: meshGateway: mode: expose: checks: paths: - path: localPathPort: listenerPort: protocol:= ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Namespace": "default", "Meta": { "": "" }, "Config": { "": }, "Mode": "", "TransparentProxy": { "OutboundListenerPort": , "DialedDirectly": }, "MeshGateway": { "Mode": = "" }, "Expose": { "Checks": , "Paths": [ { "Path": "", "LocalPathPort": , "ListenerPort": , "Protocol": "" } ] } } ``` ### Configuration Parameters : nil', description: 'Specifies arbitrary KV metadata pairs. Added in Consul 1.8.4.', yaml: false, }, { name: 'metadata', children: [ { name: 'name', description: 'Must be set to `global`', }, { name: 'namespace', enterprise: true, description: 'If running Consul Open Source, the namespace is ignored (see [Kubernetes Namespaces in Consul OSS](/docs/k8s/crds#consul-oss)). If running Consul Enterprise see [Kubernetes Namespaces in Consul Enterprise](/docs/k8s/crds#consul-enterprise) for more details.', }, ], hcl: false, }, { name: 'Config', type: 'map[string]arbitrary', description: `An arbitrary map of configuration values used by Connect proxies. The available configurations depend on the Connect proxy you use. Any values that your proxy allows can be configured globally here. To explore these options please see the documentation for your chosen proxy. `, }, { name: 'Mode', type: `string: ""`, description: `One of \`direct\` or \`transparent\`. \`transparent\` represents that inbound and outbound application traffic is being captured and redirected through the proxy. This mode does not enable the traffic redirection itself. Instead it signals Consul to configure Envoy as if traffic is already being redirected. \`direct\` represents that the proxy's listeners must be dialed directly by the local application and other proxies. Added in v1.10.0.`, }, { name: 'TransparentProxy', type: 'TransparentProxyConfig: ', description: `Controls configuration specific to proxies in transparent mode. Added in v1.10.0.`, children: [ { name: 'OutboundListenerPort', type: 'int: "15001"', description: `The port the proxy should listen on for outbound traffic. This must be the port where outbound application traffic is captured and redirected to.`, }, { name: 'DialedDirectly', type: 'bool: false', description: `Determines whether this proxy instance's IP address can be dialed directly by transparent proxies. Typically transparent proxies dial upstreams using the "virtual" tagged address, which load balances across instances. Dialing individual instances can be helpful in cases like stateful services such as a database cluster with a leader. `, }, ], }, { name: 'MeshGateway', type: 'MeshGatewayConfig: ', description: `Controls the default [mesh gateway configuration](/docs/connect/gateways/mesh-gateway/service-to-service-traffic-datacenters#connect-proxy-configuration) for all proxies. Added in v1.6.0.`, children: [ { name: 'Mode', type: 'string: ""', description: 'One of `none`, `local`, or `remote`.', }, ], }, { name: 'Expose', type: 'ExposeConfig: ', description: `Controls the default [expose path configuration](/docs/connect/registration/service-registration#expose-paths-configuration-reference) for Envoy. Added in v1.6.2.

Exposing paths through Envoy enables a service to protect itself by only listening on localhost, while still allowing non-Connect-enabled applications to contact an HTTP endpoint. Some examples include: exposing a \`/metrics\` path for Prometheus or \`/healthz\` for kubelet liveness checks.`, children: [ { name: 'Checks', type: 'bool: false', description: `If enabled, all HTTP and gRPC checks registered with the agent are exposed through Envoy. Envoy will expose listeners for these checks and will only accept connections originating from localhost or Consul's [advertise address](/docs/agent/config/config-files#advertise). The port for these listeners are dynamically allocated from [expose_min_port](/docs/agent/config/config-files#expose_min_port) to [expose_max_port](/docs/agent/config/config-files#expose_max_port). This flag is useful when a Consul client cannot reach registered services over localhost.`, }, { name: 'Paths', type: 'array: []', description: 'A list of paths to expose through Envoy.', children: [ { name: 'Path', type: 'string: ""', description: 'The HTTP path to expose. The path must be prefixed by a slash. ie: `/metrics`.', }, { name: 'LocalPathPort', type: 'int: 0', description: 'The port where the local service is listening for connections to the path.', }, { name: 'ListenerPort', type: 'int: 0', description: `The port where the proxy will listen for connections. This port must be available for the listener to be set up. If the port is not free then Envoy will not expose a listener for the path, but the proxy registration will not fail.`, }, { name: 'Protocol', type: 'string: "http"', description: 'Sets the protocol of the listener. One of `http` or `http2`. For gRPC use `http2`.', }, ], }, ], }, ]} /> ## Examples ### Default protocol The following example configures the default protocol for all sidecar proxies. ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Config { protocol = "http" } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global spec: config: protocol: http ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Config": { "protocol": "http" } } ``` -> **NOTE:** The `proxy-defaults` config entry can only be created in the `default` namespace and it will configure proxies in **all** namespaces. ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Namespace = "default" # Can only be set to "default". Config { protocol = "http" } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global namespace: default spec: config: protocol: http ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Namespace": "default", "Config": { "protocol": "http" } } ``` ### Prometheus The following example configures all sidecar proxies to expose Prometheus metrics. ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Config { envoy_prometheus_bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:9102" } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global spec: config: envoy_prometheus_bind_addr: '0.0.0.0:9102' ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Config": { "envoy_prometheus_bind_addr": "0.0.0.0:9102" } } ``` ### Proxy-specific defaults The following example configures some custom default values for all sidecar proxies. ```hcl Kind = "proxy-defaults" Name = "global" Config { local_connect_timeout_ms = 1000 handshake_timeout_ms = 10000 } ``` ```yaml apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1 kind: ProxyDefaults metadata: name: global spec: config: local_connect_timeout_ms: 1000 handshake_timeout_ms: 10000 ``` ```json { "Kind": "proxy-defaults", "Name": "global", "Config": { "local_connect_timeout_ms": 1000, "handshake_timeout_ms": 10000 } } ``` ## ACLs Configuration entries may be protected by [ACLs](/docs/security/acl). Reading a `proxy-defaults` config entry requires no specific privileges. Creating, updating, or deleting a `proxy-defaults` config entry requires `operator:write`.