--- layout: docs page_title: Consul Enterprise description: >- Consul Enterprise is a paid offering that extends Consul’s open source functions to support large and complex deployments. Learn about scaling infrastructure, simplifying operations, and making networks more resilient with Enterprise. --- # Consul Enterprise [Consul Enterprise](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/consul/) 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). ## Enterprise Features The following features are [available in several forms of Consul Enterprise](#consul-enterprise-feature-availability). ### 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 ### Resiliency - [Automated Backups](/docs/enterprise/backups): Configure the automatic backup of Consul state - [Redundancy Zones](/docs/enterprise/redundancy): Deploy backup voting Consul servers to efficiently improve Consul fault tolerance ### Scalability - [Read Replicas](/docs/enterprise/read-scale): Deploy non-voting Consul servers to enhance the scalability of read requests ### 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 ### 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/network-segments-overview): Support complex network topologies within a Consul datacenter by enforcing boundaries in Consul client gossip traffic ### 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 ## Access Consul Enterprise The method of accessing Consul Enterprise and its features depends on the whether using HashiCorp Cloud Platform or self-managed Consul. ### HCP Consul No action is required to access Consul Enterprise in a [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. ### 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. Contact your [HashiCorp Support contact](https://support.hashicorp.com/) for a development license. ## Consul Enterprise Feature Availability The Consul Enterprise features that are available depend on your license and the runtimes you use in your deployment. ### Feature availability by license Available Enterprise features per Consul form and license include: | 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 | | [Audit Logging](/docs/enterprise/audit-logging) | Standard tier and above | Yes | With Governance and Policy module | | [Automated Server Backups](/docs/enterprise/backups) | All tiers | Yes | Yes | | [Automated Server Upgrades](/docs/enterprise/upgrades) | All tiers | Yes | Yes | | [Consul-Terraform-Sync Enterprise](/docs/nia/enterprise) | All tiers | Yes | Yes | | [Enhanced Read Scalability](/docs/enterprise/read-scale) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module | | [Namespaces](/docs/enterprise/namespaces) | All tiers | Yes | With Governance and Policy module | | [Network Areas](/docs/enterprise/federation) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module | | [Network Segments](/docs/enterprise/network-segments/network-segments-overview) | No | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module | | [OIDC Auth Method](/docs/security/acl/auth-methods/oidc) | No | Yes | Yes | | [Redundancy Zones](/docs/enterprise/redundancy) | Not applicable | Yes | With Global Visibility, Routing, and Scale module | | [Sentinel for KV](/docs/enterprise/sentinel) | All tiers | Yes | With Governance and Policy module | [HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) Consul]: https://cloud.hashicorp.com/products/consul [Consul Enterprise]: https://www.hashicorp.com/products/consul/ ### Feature availability by runtime Consul Enterprise feature availability can change depending on your server and client agent runtimes. | Enterprise Feature | VM Client | K8s Client | ECS Client | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------: | :--------: | :--------: | | [Admin Partitions](/consul/docs/enterprise/admin-partitions) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Audit Logging](/consul/docs/enterprise/audit-logging) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Automated Server Backups](/consul/docs/enterprise/backups) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Automated Server Upgrades](/consul/docs/enterprise/upgrades) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Enhanced Read Scalability](/consul/docs/enterprise/read-scale) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Namespaces](/consul/docs/enterprise/namespaces) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Network Areas](/consul/docs/enterprise/federation) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Network Segments](/consul/docs/enterprise/network-segments/network-segments-overview) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | [OIDC Auth Method](/consul/docs/security/acl/auth-methods/oidc) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Redundancy Zones](/consul/docs/enterprise/redundancy) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Sentinel ](/consul/docs/enterprise/sentinel) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Enterprise Feature | VM Client | K8s Client | ECS Client | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------: | :--------: | :--------: | | [Admin Partitions](/consul/docs/enterprise/admin-partitions) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Audit Logging](/consul/docs/enterprise/audit-logging) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Automated Server Backups](/consul/docs/enterprise/backups) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Automated Server Upgrades](/consul/docs/enterprise/upgrades) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Enhanced Read Scalability](/consul/docs/enterprise/read-scale) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Namespaces](/consul/docs/enterprise/namespaces) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Network Areas](/consul/docs/enterprise/federation) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Network Segments](/consul/docs/enterprise/network-segments/network-segments-overview) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [OIDC Auth Method](/consul/docs/security/acl/auth-methods/oidc) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | [Redundancy Zones](/consul/docs/enterprise/redundancy) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Sentinel ](/consul/docs/enterprise/sentinel) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | Enterprise Feature | VM Client | K8s Client | ECS Client | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------: | :--------: | :--------: | | [Admin Partitions](/consul/docs/enterprise/admin-partitions) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Audit Logging](/consul/docs/enterprise/audit-logging) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Automated Server Backups](/consul/docs/enterprise/backups) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Automated Server Upgrades](/consul/docs/enterprise/upgrades) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Enhanced Read Scalability](/consul/docs/enterprise/read-scale) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Namespaces](/consul/docs/enterprise/namespaces) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | [Network Areas](/consul/docs/enterprise/federation) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Network Segments](/consul/docs/enterprise/network-segments/network-segments-overview) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [OIDC Auth Method](/consul/docs/security/acl/auth-methods/oidc) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | [Redundancy Zones](/consul/docs/enterprise/redundancy) | n/a | n/a | n/a | | [Sentinel ](/consul/docs/enterprise/sentinel) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |