9eacb1c27b
Co-authored-by: Tim Gross <tgross@hashicorp.com>
132 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
132 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
---
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layout: docs
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page_title: Consul Integration
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description: Learn how to integrate Nomad with Consul and add service discovery to jobs
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---
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# Consul Integration
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[Consul][] is a tool for discovering and configuring services in your
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infrastructure. Consul's key features include service discovery, health checking,
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a KV store, and robust support for multi-datacenter deployments. Nomad's integration
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with Consul enables automatic clustering, built-in service registration, and
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dynamic rendering of configuration files and environment variables. The sections
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below describe the integration in more detail.
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## Configuration
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In order to use Consul with Nomad, you will need to configure and
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install Consul on your nodes alongside Nomad, or schedule it as a system job.
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Nomad does not currently run Consul for you.
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To enable Consul integration, please see the
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[Nomad agent Consul integration](/docs/configuration/consul)
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configuration.
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## Automatic Clustering with Consul
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Nomad servers and clients will be automatically informed of each other's
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existence when a running Consul cluster already exists and the Consul agent is
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installed and configured on each host. Please see the [Automatic Clustering with
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Consul](https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/nomad/clustering) guide for more information.
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## Service Discovery
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Nomad schedules workloads of various types across a cluster of generic hosts.
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Because of this, placement is not known in advance and you will need to use
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service discovery to connect tasks to other services deployed across your
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cluster. Nomad integrates with Consul to provide service discovery and
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monitoring.
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To configure a job to register with service discovery, please see the
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[`service` job specification documentation][service].
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## Dynamic Configuration
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Nomad's job specification includes a [`template` stanza](/docs/job-specification/template)
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that utilizes a Consul ecosystem tool called [Consul Template](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-template). This mechanism creates a convenient way to ship configuration files
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that are populated from environment variables, Consul data, Vault secrets, or just
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general configurations within a Nomad task.
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For more information on Nomad's template stanza and how it leverages Consul Template,
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please see the [`template` job specification documentation](/docs/job-specification/template).
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## Consul Namespaces
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Nomad provides integration with [Consul Namespaces][consul_namespaces] for service
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registrations specified in `service` blocks and Consul KV reads in `template`
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blocks.
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By default, Nomad will not specify a Consul namespace on service registrations or
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KV store reads, which Consul then implicitly resolves to the `"default"` namespace.
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This default namespace behavior can be modified by setting the [`namespace`][consul_agent_namespace] field
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in the Nomad agent Consul configuration block.
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For more control over Consul namespaces, Nomad Enterprise supports configuring the
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Consul namespace at the [group level][consul_group_namespace] in the Nomad job spec
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as well as the [`-consul-namespace`][consul_run_namespace] command line argument for `job run`.
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The Consul namespace used for a set of group or task service registrations within
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a group, as well as `template` KV store access is determined from the following
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hierarchy from lowest to highest precedence:
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- Consul default: If no Consul namespace options are configured, Consul will automatically
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make use of the `"default"` namespace.
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- agent configuration: If the [`namespace`][consul_agent_namespace] Nomad agent
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Consul configuration parameter is set, this namespace will be used instead of
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the Consul default.
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- job run command: <EnterpriseAlert inline/> If the [`-consul-namespace`][consul_run_namespace]
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command line argument is specified on job submission, this namespace will take
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precedence over the namespace set in Nomad agent configuration.
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- group configuration: <EnterpriseAlert inline/> If the [group level][consul_group_namespace]
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Consul namespace is configured, this namespace will take precedence over all other
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options.
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If [Consul ACLs][consul_acls] are enabled, the [`allow_unauthenticated`] configuration parameter
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will control whether a Consul token will be required when submitting a job with
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Consul namespace configured. The provided Consul token must belong to the correct
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namespace, and must be backed by a Consul ACL Policy with sufficient `service:write`
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`kv:read` permissions. An example policy might look like,
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```hcl
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key_prefix "" {
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policy = "read"
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}
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service_prefix "" {
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policy = "write"
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}
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```
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## Assumptions
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- Consul 0.7.2 or later is needed for `tls_skip_verify` in HTTP checks.
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- Consul 0.6.4 or later is needed for using the Script checks.
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- Consul 0.6.0 or later is needed for using the TCP checks.
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- The service discovery feature in Nomad depends on operators making sure that
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the Nomad client can reach the Consul agent.
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- Tasks running inside Nomad also need to reach out to the Consul agent if
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they want to use any of the Consul APIs. Ex: A task running inside a docker
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container in the bridge mode won't be able to talk to a Consul Agent running
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on the loopback interface of the host since the container in the bridge mode
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has its own network interface and doesn't see interfaces on the global
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network namespace of the host. There are a couple of ways to solve this, one
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way is to run the container in the host networking mode, or make the Consul
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agent listen on an interface in the network namespace of the container.
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[`allow_unauthenticated`]: /docs/configuration/consul#allow_unauthenticated
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[consul]: https://www.consul.io/ 'Consul by HashiCorp'
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[consul_acls]: https://www.consul.io/docs/security/acl
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[consul_namespaces]: https://www.consul.io/docs/enterprise/namespaces
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[consul_agent_namespace]: /docs/configuration/consul#namespace
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[consul_group_namespace]: /docs/job-specification/group#namespace
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[consul_run_namespace]: /docs/commands/job/run#consul-namespace
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[service]: /docs/job-specification/service 'Nomad service Job Specification'
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