» Consul Commands (CLI)
Consul is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI).
Consul is only a single command-line application: consul
. This application
then takes a subcommand such as "agent" or "members". The complete list of
subcommands is in the navigation to the left.
The consul
CLI is a well-behaved command line application. In erroneous
cases, a non-zero exit status will be returned. It also responds to -h
and --help
as you'd most likely expect. And some commands that expect input accept
"-" as a parameter to tell Consul to read the input from stdin.
To view a list of the available commands at any time, just run consul
with
no arguments:
$ consul
Usage: consul [--version] [--help] <command> [<args>]
Available commands are:
acl Interact with Consul's ACLs
agent Runs a Consul agent
catalog Interact with the catalog
connect Interact with Consul Connect
debug Records a debugging archive for operators
event Fire a new event
exec Executes a command on Consul nodes
force-leave Forces a member of the cluster to enter the "left" state
info Provides debugging information for operators.
intention Interact with Connect service intentions
join Tell Consul agent to join cluster
keygen Generates a new encryption key
keyring Manages gossip layer encryption keys
kv Interact with the key-value store
leave Gracefully leaves the Consul cluster and shuts down
lock Execute a command holding a lock
login Login to Consul using an auth method
logout Destroy a Consul token created with login
maint Controls node or service maintenance mode
members Lists the members of a Consul cluster
monitor Stream logs from a Consul agent
operator Provides cluster-level tools for Consul operators
reload Triggers the agent to reload configuration files
rtt Estimates network round trip time between nodes
services Interact with services
snapshot Saves, restores and inspects snapshots of Consul server state
tls Builtin helpers for creating CAs and certificates
validate Validate config files/directories
version Prints the Consul version
watch Watch for changes in Consul
To get help for any specific command, pass the -h
flag to the relevant
subcommand. For example, to see help about the join
subcommand:
$ consul join -h
Usage: consul join [options] address ...
Tells a running Consul agent (with "consul agent") to join the cluster
by specifying at least one existing member.
HTTP API Options
-http-addr=<address>
The `address` and port of the Consul HTTP agent. The value can be
an IP address or DNS address, but it must also include the port.
This can also be specified via the CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR environment
variable. The default value is http://127.0.0.1:8500. The scheme
can also be set to HTTPS by setting the environment variable
CONSUL_HTTP_SSL=true.
-token=<value>
ACL token to use in the request. This can also be specified via the
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN environment variable. If unspecified, the query
will default to the token of the Consul agent at the HTTP address.
Command Options
-wan
Joins a server to another server in the WAN pool.
» Autocompletion
The consul
command features opt-in subcommand autocompletion that you can
enable for your shell with consul -autocomplete-install
. After doing so,
you can invoke a new shell and use the feature.
For example, assume a tab is typed at the end of each prompt line:
$ consul e
event exec
$ consul r
reload rtt
$ consul operator raft
list-peers remove-peer
» Environment Variables
In addition to CLI flags, Consul reads environment variables for behavior defaults. CLI flags always take precedence over environment variables, but it is often helpful to use environment variables to configure the Consul agent, particularly with configuration management and init systems.
These environment variables and their purpose are described below:
»
CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR
This is the HTTP API address to the local Consul agent (not the remote server) specified as a URI with optional scheme:
CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR=127.0.0.1:8500
or as a Unix socket path:
CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR=unix://var/run/consul_http.sock
If the https://
scheme is used, CONSUL_HTTP_SSL
is implied to be true.
»
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN
This is the API access token required when access control lists (ACLs) are enabled, for example:
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN=aba7cbe5-879b-999a-07cc-2efd9ac0ffe
»
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN_FILE
This is a path to a file containing the API access token required when access control lists (ACLs) are enabled, for example:
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN_FILE=/path/to/consul.token
»
CONSUL_HTTP_AUTH
This specifies HTTP Basic access credentials as a username:password pair:
CONSUL_HTTP_AUTH=operations:JPIMCmhDHzTukgO6
»
CONSUL_HTTP_SSL
This is a boolean value (default is false) that enables the HTTPS URI scheme and SSL connections to the HTTP API:
CONSUL_HTTP_SSL=true
»
CONSUL_HTTP_SSL_VERIFY
This is a boolean value (default true) to specify SSL certificate verification;
setting this value to false
is not recommended for production use. Example for
development purposes:
CONSUL_HTTP_SSL_VERIFY=false
»
CONSUL_CACERT
Path to a CA file to use for TLS when communicating with Consul.
CONSUL_CACERT=ca.crt
»
CONSUL_CAPATH
Path to a directory of CA certificates to use for TLS when communicating with Consul.
CONSUL_CAPATH=ca_certs/
»
CONSUL_CLIENT_CERT
Path to a client cert file to use for TLS when verify_incoming
is enabled.
CONSUL_CLIENT_CERT=client.crt
»
CONSUL_CLIENT_KEY
Path to a client key file to use for TLS when verify_incoming
is enabled.
CONSUL_CLIENT_KEY=client.key
»
CONSUL_TLS_SERVER_NAME
The server name to use as the SNI host when connecting via TLS.
CONSUL_TLS_SERVER_NAME=consulserver.domain
»
CONSUL_GRPC_ADDR
Like CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR
but configures the address the
local agent is listening for gRPC requests. Currently gRPC is only used for
integrating Envoy proxy and must be enabled
explicitly in agent configuration.
CONSUL_GRPC_ADDR=127.0.0.1:8502
or as a Unix socket path:
CONSUL_GRPC_ADDR=unix://var/run/consul_grpc.sock
If the agent is configured with TLS
certificates, then the
gRPC listener will require TLS and present the same certificate as the https
listener. As with CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR
, if TLS is enabled either the https://
scheme should be used, or CONSUL_HTTP_SSL
set.