Installing HashiCorp Consul Service Mesh

HashiCorp Consul is a powerful service mesh solution that integrates seamlessly with Terraform and Kubernetes. In this guide, you’ll walk through installing Consul on your Kubernetes cluster to enable:

mTLS-encrypted pod-to-pod communication
Detailed visibility and troubleshooting for east–west traffic
Fine-grained access control between services

Consul’s official Helm chart simplifies installation and upgrades, making it an ideal choice for modern infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following in place:

Tool / Resource	Purpose
Kubernetes cluster (LKE, EKS, GKE, etc.)	Host your Consul service mesh
Helm (v3+)	Manage and deploy the Consul Helm chart
`kubectl`	Interact with your cluster

1. Add the HashiCorp Helm Repository

helm repo add hashicorp https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com
helm search repo hashicorp/consul
helm repo update

Sample output:

Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "hashicorp" chart repository
Update Complete. *Happy Helming!*

2. Define Your Consul Configuration

Create a file named consul.yaml to customize your deployment. This example enables the UI, sidecar injection, and sets up two server replicas:

global:
  name: consul
  datacenter: njtest

server:
  replicas: 2
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: false
    runAsUser: 0

ui:
  enabled: true

connectInject:
  enabled: true
  default: true

controller:
  enabled: true

Configuration Key	Description
`global.name`	Unique release name for your Consul deployment
`global.datacenter`	Logical datacenter identifier
`server.replicas`	Number of Consul server pods
`ui.enabled`	Toggle the Consul web UI
`connectInject`	Enable sidecar proxy injection by default
`controller.enabled`	Deploys the Consul Kubernetes controller and CRDs

3. (Optional) Review Your Directory Structure

If you keep your configurations and helper scripts together, you might have:

cd Linode/Consul
ls

consul.yaml
consulservicemesh.sh

Note

In this lesson, we’ll run Helm commands manually rather than via the helper script.

4. Install Consul with Helm

Deploy Consul into your cluster using your custom consul.yaml:

helm install consul hashicorp/consul \
  --set global.name=consul \
  -f consul.yaml

Sample Helm output:

NAME: consul
LAST DEPLOYED: Mon Aug 14 12:34:56 2023
STATUS: deployed
NOTES:
Thank you for installing HashiCorp Consul!
To learn more:
  $ helm status consul
  $ helm get all consul

5. Verify the Deployment

Wait a minute for pods to initialize, then confirm they’re running:

kubectl get pods

NAME                                    READY   STATUS    AGE
consul-server-0                         1/1     Running   2m
consul-server-1                         1/1     Running   2m
consul-client-74426                     1/1     Running   1m
consul-connect-injector-...             1/1     Running   1m
consul-controller-...                   1/1     Running   1m
consul-webhook-cert-manager-...         1/1     Running   1m

List the services to find the consul-ui ClusterIP:

kubectl get svc

6. Access the Consul Web UI

Forward the UI port to your local machine:

kubectl port-forward service/consul-ui 18500:80 --address 0.0.0.0

Forwarding from 0.0.0.0:18500 -> 8500

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost:18500

You should now see the Consul web interface, confirming your service mesh is up and running.

Warning

Avoid exposing the Consul UI to the public internet. Use secure tunnels or VPNs for production environments.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed and accessed HashiCorp Consul as a service mesh on Kubernetes.

Links and References

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