--- layout: "docs" page_title: "Connect - Service Registration" sidebar_current: "docs-connect-registration-service-registration" description: |- A per-service proxy sidecar transparently handles inbound and outbound service connections. You can register these sidecars with sane defaults by nesting their definitions in the service definition. --- # Proxy Service Registration To function as a Connect proxy, proxies must be declared as a proxy types in their service definitions, and provide information about the service they represent. To declare a service as a proxy, the service definition must contain the following fields: * `kind` `(string)` must be set to `connect-proxy`. This declares that the service is a proxy type. * `proxy.destination_service_name` `(string)` must be set to the service that this proxy is representing. Note that this replaces `proxy_destination` in versions 1.2.0 to 1.3.0. ~> **Deprecation Notice:** From version 1.2.0 to 1.3.0, proxy destination was specified using `proxy_destination` at the top level. This will continue to work until at least 1.5.0 but it's highly recommended to switch to using `proxy.destination_service_name`. * `port` `(int)` must be set so that other Connect services can discover the exact address for connections. `address` is optional if the service is being registered against an agent, since it'll inherit the node address. Minimal Example: ```json { "name": "redis-proxy", "kind": "connect-proxy", "proxy": { "destination_service_name": "redis" }, "port": 8181 } ``` With this service registered, any Connect clients searching for a Connect-capable endpoint for "redis" will find this proxy. ### Sidecar Proxy Fields Most Connect proxies are deployed as "sidecars" which means they are co-located with a single service instance which they represent and proxy all inbound traffic to. In this case the following fields should also be set if you are deploying your proxy as a sidecar but defining it in its own service registration: * `proxy.destination_service_id` `(string: )` is set to the _id_ (and not the _name_ if they are different) of the specific service instance that is being proxied. The proxied service is assumed to be registered on the same agent although it's not strictly validated to allow for un-coordinated registrations. * `proxy.local_service_port` `(int: )` must specify the port the proxy should use to connect to the _local_ service instance. * `proxy.local_service_address` `(string: "")` can be set to override the IP or hostname the proxy should use to connect to the _local_ service. Defaults to `127.0.0.1`. ### Complete Configuration Example The following is a complete example showing all the options available when registering a proxy instance. ```json { "name": "redis-proxy", "kind": "connect-proxy", "proxy": { "destination_service_name": "redis", "destination_service_id": "redis1", "local_service_address": "127.0.0.1", "local_service_port": 9090, "config": {}, "upstreams": [] }, "port": 8181 } ``` #### Proxy Parameters - `destination_service_name` `(string: )` - Specifies the _name_ of the service this instance is proxying. Both side-car and centralized load-balancing proxies must specify this. It is used during service discovery to find the correct proxy instances to route to for a given service name. - `destination_service_id` `(string: "")` - Specifies the _ID_ of a single specific service instance that this proxy is representing. This is only valid for side-car style proxies that run on the same node. It is assumed that the service instance is registered via the same Consul agent so the ID is unique and has no node qualifier. This is useful to show in tooling which proxy instance is a side-car for which application instance and will enable fine-grained analysis of the metrics coming from the proxy. - `local_service_address` `(string: "")` - Specifies the address a side-car proxy should attempt to connect to the local application instance on. Defaults to 127.0.0.1. - `local_service_port` `(int: )` - Specifies the port a side-car proxy should attempt to connect to the local application instance on. Defaults to the port advertised by the service instance identified by `destination_service_id` if it exists otherwise it may be empty in responses. - `config` `(object: {})` - Specifies opaque config JSON that will be stored and returned along with the service instance from future API calls. - `upstreams` `(array: [])` - Specifies the upstream services this proxy should create listeners for. The format is defined in [Upstream Configuration Reference](#upstream-configuration-reference). ### Upstream Configuration Reference The following examples show all possible upstream configuration parameters. Note that in versions 1.2.0 to 1.3.0, managed proxy upstreams were specified inside the opaque `connect.proxy.config` map. The format is almost unchanged however managed proxy upstreams are now defined a level up in the `connect.proxy.upstreams`. The old location is deprecated and will be automatically converted into the new for an interim period before support is dropped in a future major release. The only difference in format between the upstream definitions is that the field `destination_datacenter` has been renamed to `datacenter` to reflect that it's the discovery target and not necessarily the same as the instance that will be returned in the case of a prepared query that fails over to another datacenter. Note that `snake_case` is used here as it works in both [config file and API registrations](/docs/agent/services.html#service-definition-parameter-case). Upstreams support multiple destination types. Both examples are shown below followed by documentation for each attribute. #### Service Destination ```json { "destination_type": "service", "destination_name": "redis", "datacenter": "dc1", "local_bind_address": "127.0.0.1", "local_bind_port": 1234, "config": {} }, ``` #### Prepared Query Destination ```json { "destination_type": "prepared_query", "destination_name": "database", "local_bind_address": "127.0.0.1", "local_bind_port": 1234, "config": {} }, ``` * `destination_name` `(string: )` - Specifies the name of the service or prepared query to route connect to. The prepared query should be the name or the ID of the prepared query. * `local_bind_port` `(int: )` - Specifies the port to bind a local listener to for the application to make outbound connections to this upstream. * `local_bind_address` `(string: "")` - Specifies the address to bind a local listener to for the application to make outbound connections to this upstream. Defaults to `127.0.0.1`. * `destination_type` `(string: "")` - Specifies the type of discovery query to use to find an instance to connect to. Valid values are `service` or `prepared_query`. Defaults to `service`. * `datacenter` `(string: "")` - Specifies the datacenter to issue the discovery query too. Defaults to the local datacenter. * `config` `(object: {})` - Specifies opaque configuration options that will be provided to the proxy instance for this specific upstream. Can contain any valid JSON object. This might be used to configure proxy-specific features like timeouts or retries for the given upstream. See the [built-in proxy configuration reference](/docs/connect/configuration.html#built-in-proxy-options) for options available when using the built-in proxy. If using Envoy as a proxy, see [Envoy configuration reference](/docs/connect/configuration.html#envoy-options)