---
layout: docs
page_title: Kubernetes
sidebar_title: Kubernetes
description: >-
  Consul has many integrations with Kubernetes. You can deploy Consul to
  Kubernetes using the Helm chart, sync services between Consul and Kubernetes,
  automatically secure Pod communication with Connect, and more. This section
  documents the official integrations between Consul and Kubernetes.
---

# Kubernetes

Consul has many integrations with Kubernetes. You can deploy Consul
to Kubernetes using the Helm chart, sync services between Consul and
Kubernetes, run Consul Connect Service Mesh, and more.
This section documents the official integrations between Consul and Kubernetes.

## Use Cases

**Running a Consul server cluster:** The Consul server cluster can run directly
on Kubernetes. This can be used by both nodes within Kubernetes as well as
nodes external to Kubernetes, as long as they can communicate to the server
nodes via the network.

**Running Consul clients:** Consul clients can run as pods on every node
and expose the Consul API to running pods. This enables many Consul tools
such as envconsul, consul-template, and more to work on Kubernetes since a
local agent is available. This will also register each Kubernetes node with
the Consul catalog for full visibility into your infrastructure.

**Consul Connect Service Mesh:**
Consul can automatically inject the [Consul Connect](/docs/connect)
sidecar into pods so that they can accept and establish encrypted
and authorized network connections via mutual TLS. And because Connect
can run anywhere, pods can also communicate with external services (and
vice versa) over a fully encrypted connection.

**Service sync to enable Kubernetes and non-Kubernetes services to communicate:**
Consul can sync Kubernetes services with its own service registry. This allows
Kubernetes services to use native Kubernetes service discovery to discover
and connect to external services registered in Consul, and for external services
to use Consul service discovery to discover and connect to Kubernetes services.

**And more!** Consul can run directly on Kubernetes, so in addition to the
native integrations provided by Consul itself, any other tool built for
Kubernetes can choose to leverage Consul.

## Getting Started With Consul and Kubernetes

There are several ways to try Consul with Kubernetes in different environments.

**Guides**

- The [Getting Started with Consul Service Mesh track](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/gs-consul-service-mesh/understand-consul-service-mesh?utm_source=WEBSITE&utm_medium=WEB_IO&utm_offer=ARTICLE_PAGE&utm_content=DOCS)
  provides guidance for installing Consul as service mesh for Kubernetes using the Helm
  chart, deploying services in the service mesh, and using intentions to secure service
  communications.

- The [Consul and Minikube guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/getting-started-k8s/minikube?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) is a quick step-by-step guide for deploying Consul with the official Helm chart on a local instance of Minikube.

- Review production best practices and cloud-specific configurations for deploying Consul on managed Kubernetes runtimes.

  - The [Consul on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/
    getting-started-k8s/azure-k8s?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on AKS. The guide also allows you to practice deploying two microservices. 
  - The [Consul on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes (EKS) guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/kubernetes/aws-k8s?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on EKS. Additionally, it provides guidance on interacting with your datacenter with the Consul UI, CLI, and API. 
  - The [Consul on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/kubernetes/google-cloud-k8s?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) is a complete step-by-step guide on how to deploy Consul on GKE. Additionally, it provides guidance on interacting with your datacenter with the Consul UI, CLI, and API.

- The [Consul and Kubernetes Reference Architecture](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/day-1-operations/kubernetes-reference?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) guide provides recommended practices for production.

- The [Consul and Kubernetes Deployment](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/day-1-operations/kubernetes-deployment-guide?utm_source=consul.io&utm_medium=docs) guide covers the necessary steps to install and configure a new Consul cluster on Kubernetes in production.

**Documentation**

- [Installing Consul](/docs/platform/k8s/run) covers how to install Consul using the Helm chart.
- [Helm Chart Reference](/docs/platform/k8s/helm) describes the different options for configuring the Helm chart.