» Cloud Auto-joining

As of Consul 0.9.1, retry-join accepts a unified interface using the go-discover library for doing automatic cluster joining using cloud metadata. To use retry-join with a supported cloud provider, specify the configuration on the command line or configuration file as a key=value key=value ... string.

In Consul 0.9.1-0.9.3 the values need to be URL encoded but for most practical purposes you need to replace spaces with + signs.

As of Consul 1.0 the values are taken literally and must not be URL encoded. If the values contain spaces, equals, backslashes or double quotes then they need to be double quoted and the usual escaping rules apply.

$ consul agent -retry-join 'provider=my-cloud config=val config2="some other val" ...'

or via a configuration file:

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=my-cloud config=val config2=\"some other val\" ..."]
}

The cloud provider-specific configurations are detailed below. This can be combined with static IP or DNS addresses or even multiple configurations for different providers.

In order to use discovery behind a proxy, you will need to set HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY environment variables per Golang net/http library.

The following sections give the options specific to each supported cloud provider.

» Amazon EC2

This returns the first private IP address of all servers in the given region which have the given tag_key and tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=aws tag_key=... tag_value=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=aws tag_key=... tag_value=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("aws" in this case).
  • tag_key (required) - the key of the tag to auto-join on.
  • tag_value (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • region (optional) - the AWS region to authenticate in.
  • addr_type (optional) - the type of address to discover: private_v4, public_v4, public_v6. Default is private_v4. (>= 1.0)
  • access_key_id (optional) - the AWS access key for authentication (see below for more information about authenticating).
  • secret_access_key (optional) - the AWS secret access key for authentication (see below for more information about authenticating).

» Authentication & Precedence

  • Static credentials access_key_id=... secret_access_key=...
  • Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
  • Shared credentials file (~/.aws/credentials or the path specified by AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE)
  • ECS task role metadata (container-specific).
  • EC2 instance role metadata.

The only required IAM permission is ec2:DescribeInstances, and it is recommended that you make a dedicated key used only for auto-joining. If the region is omitted it will be discovered through the local instance's EC2 metadata endpoint.

» Microsoft Azure

This returns the first private IP address of all servers in the given region which have the given tag_key and tag_value in the tenant and subscription, or in the given resource_group of a vm_scale_set for Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=azure tag_name=... tag_value=... tenant_id=... client_id=... subscription_id=... secret_access_key=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=azure tag_name=... tag_value=... tenant_id=... client_id=... subscription_id=... secret_access_key=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("azure" in this case).
  • tenant_id (required) - the tenant to join machines in.
  • client_id (required) - the client to authenticate with.
  • secret_access_key (required) - the secret client key. NOTE This value often may have an equals sign in it's value, especially if generated from the Azure Portal, so is important to wrap in single quotes eg. secret_acccess_key='fpOfcHQJAQBczjAxiVpeyLmX1M0M0KPBST+GU2GvEN4='

Variables can also be provided by environmental variables:

Use these configuration parameters when using tags:

  • tag_name - the name of the tag to auto-join on.
  • tag_value - the value of the tag to auto-join on.

Use these configuration parameters when using Virtual Machine Scale Sets (Consul 1.0.3 and later):

  • resource_group - the name of the resource group to filter on.
  • vm_scale_set - the name of the virtual machine scale set to filter on.

When using tags the only permission needed is Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces.

When using Virtual Machine Scale Sets the only role action needed is Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/*/read.

» Google Compute Engine

This returns the first private IP address of all servers in the given project which have the given tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=gce project_name=... tag_value=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=gce project_name=... tag_value=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("gce" in this case).
  • tag_value (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • project_name (optional) - the name of the project to auto-join on. Discovered if not set.
  • zone_pattern (optional) - the list of zones can be restricted through an RE2 compatible regular expression. If omitted, servers in all zones are returned.
  • credentials_file (optional) - the credentials file for authentication. Note, if you set -config-dir do not store the credentials.json file in the configuration directory as it will be parsed as a config file and Consul will fail to start. See below for more information.

» Authentication & Precedence

  • Use credentials from credentials_file, if provided.
  • Use JSON file from GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable.
  • Use JSON file in a location known to the gcloud command-line tool.
    • On Windows, this is %APPDATA%/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json.
    • On other systems, $HOME/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json.
  • On Google Compute Engine, use credentials from the metadata server. In this final case any provided scopes are ignored.

Discovery requires a GCE Service Account. Credentials are searched using the following paths, in order of precedence.

» IBM SoftLayer

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given datacenter with the given tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=softlayer datacenter=... tag_value=... username=... api_key=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=softlayer datacenter=... tag_value=... username=... api_key=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("softlayer" in this case).
  • datacenter (required) - the name of the datacenter to auto-join in.
  • tag_value (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • username (required) - the username to use for auth.
  • api_key (required) - the api key to use for auth.

» Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud)

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given region with the given tag_key and tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=aliyun region=... tag_key=consul tag_value=... access_key_id=... access_key_secret=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=aliyun region=... tag_key=consul tag_value=... access_key_id=... access_key_secret=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("aliyun" in this case).
  • region (required) - the name of the region.
  • tag_key (required) - the key of the tag to auto-join on.
  • tag_value (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • access_key_id (required) -the access key to use for auth.
  • access_key_secret (required) - the secret key to use for auth.

The required RAM permission is ecs:DescribeInstances. It is recommended you make a dedicated key used only for auto-joining.

» Digital Ocean

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given region with the given tag_name.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=digitalocean region=... tag_name=... api_token=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=digitalocean region=... tag_name=... api_token=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("digitalocean" in this case).
  • region (required) - the name of the region.
  • tag_name (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • api_token (required) -the token to use for auth.

» Openstack

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given region with the given tag_key and tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=os tag_key=consul tag_value=server username=... password=... auth_url=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=os tag_key=consul tag_value=server username=... password=... auth_url=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("os" in this case).
  • tag_key (required) - the key of the tag to auto-join on.
  • tag_value (required) - the value of the tag to auto-join on.
  • project_id (optional) - the id of the project (tenant id).
  • username (optional) - the username to use for auth.
  • password (optional) - the password to use for auth.
  • token (optional) - the token to use for auth.
  • auth_url (optional) - the identity endpoint to use for auth.
  • insecure (optional) - indicates whether the API certificate should not be checked. Any value means true.

The configuration can also be provided by environment variables.

» Scaleway

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given region with the given tag_name.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=scaleway organization=my-org tag_name=consul-server token=... region=..."

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=scaleway organization=my-org tag_name=consul-server token=... region=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("scaleway" in this case).
  • region (required) - the name of the region.
  • tag_name (required) - the name of the tag to auto-join on.
  • organization (required) - the organization access key to use for auth (equal to access key).
  • token (required) - the token to use for auth.

» Joyent Triton

This returns the first PrimaryIP addresses for all servers with the given tag_key and tag_value.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=triton account=testaccount url=https://us-sw-1.api.joyentcloud.com key_id=... tag_key=consul-role tag_value=server"

{
    "retry_join": ["provider=triton account=testaccount url=https://us-sw-1.api.joyentcloud.com key_id=... tag_key=consul-role tag_value=server"]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("triton" in this case).
  • account (required) - the name of the account.
  • url (required) - the URL of the Triton api endpoint to use.
  • key_id (required) - the key id to use.
  • tag_key (optional) - the instance tag key to use.
  • tag_value (optional) - the tag value to use.

» vSphere

This returns the first private IP address of all servers for the given region with the given tag_name and category_name.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=vsphere category_name=consul-role tag_name=consul-server host=... user=... password=... insecure_ssl=[true|false]"

{
        "retry-join": ["provider=vsphere category_name=consul-role tag_name=consul-server host=... user=... password=... insecure_ssl=[true|false]"]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("vsphere" is the provider here)
  • tag_name (required) - The name of the tag to look up.
  • category_name (required) - The category of the tag to look up.
  • host (required) - The host of the vSphere server to connect to.
  • user (required) - The username to connect as.
  • password (required) - The password of the user to connect to vSphere as.
  • insecure_ssl (optional) - Whether or not to skip SSL certificate validation.
  • timeout (optional) - Discovery context timeout (default: 10m)

» Packet

This returns the first private IP address (or the IP addresso of address type) of all servers with the given project and auth_token.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=packet auth_token=token project=uuid url=... address_type=..."

{
        "retry-join": ["provider=packet auth_token=token project=uuid url=... address_type=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("packet" is the provider here)
  • project (required) - the UUID of packet project
  • auth_token (required) - the authentication token for packet
  • url (optional) - a REST URL for packet
  • address_type (optional) - the type of address to check for in this provider ("private_v4", "public_v4" or "public_v6". Defaults to "private_v4")

» Kubernetes (k8s)

The Kubernetes provider finds the IP addresses of pods with the matching label or field selector. This is useful for non-Kubernetes agents that are joining a server cluster running within Kubernetes.

The pod IP is used by default, which requires that the agent connecting can network to the pod IP. The host_network boolean can be set to true to use the host IP instead, but this requires the agent ports (Gossip, RPC, etc.) to be exported to the host as well.

By default, no port is specified. This causes Consul to use the default gossip port (default behavior with all join requests). The pod may specify the consul.hashicorp.com/auto-join-port annotation to set the port. The value may be an integer or a named port.

$ consul agent -retry-join "provider=k8s label_selector=\"app=consul,component=server\""

{
        "retry-join": ["provider=k8s label_selector=..."]
}
  • provider (required) - the name of the provider ("k8s" is the provider here)
  • kubeconfig (optional) - path to the kubeconfig file. If this isn't set, then in-cluster auth will be attempted. If that fails, the default kubeconfig paths are tried ($HOME/.kube/config).
  • namespace (optional) - the namespace to search for pods. If this isn't set, it defaults to all namespaces.
  • label_selector (optional) - the label selector for matching pods.
  • field_selector (optional) - the field selector for matching pods.