Production readiness checklist

Below is a checklist that can help you deploy your first datacenter. This checklist is not an exhaustive list and you may need to add additional tasks depending on your environment.

Infrastructure Planning

• Review the reference diagram and requirements.

Ports

Refer to the API documentation for specific port numbers or alternate configuration options.

• dns, DNS server port
• http, HTTP API port
• https, HTTPS API port
• grpc, gRPC API port
• serf_lan, Serf LAN port
• serf_wan, Serf WAN port
• server, server RPC address port
• sidecar_min_port, inclusive minimum port number to use for automatically assigned sidecar service registrations
• sidecar_max_port, inclusive maximum port number to use for automatically assigned sidecar service registrations
• expose_min_port, inclusive minimum port number to use for automatically assigned exposed check listeners
• expose_max_port, inclusive maximum port number to use for automatically assigned exposed check listeners

Deployment

Consul Servers

• Read the release notes for the Consul version.
• Consul binary has been distributed to all servers.
• Customize the server configuration file or files.
• Autopilot is configured or disabled.
• TLS encryption is enabled for RPC and consensus communication.
• Gossip encryption configured.
• ACLs bootstrapped.
• Telemetry configured.

Consul Clients

• Consul binary has been distributed to all clients.
• The configuration file has been customized.
• TLS enabled for RPC communication
• Gossip encryption configured
• External Service Monitor has been deployed to nodes that cannot run a Consul client.

Networking

Configure DNS Caching

Refer to the DNS caching tutorial for step by step instructions and considerations around DNS performance.

• Stale reads have been configured in the agent configuration file.
• Negative response caching have been configured in the agent configuration file.
• TTL values have been configured in the agent configuration file.

Setup DNS Forwarding

Refer to the DNS forwarding tutorial for instructions on integrating Consul with system DNS.

• BIND, dnsmasq, Unbound, systemd-resolved, or iptables has been configured.

Security

Encryption of Communication

• TLS: RPC encryption for both incoming and outgoing communication.
• Gossip Encryption. Both incoming and outgoing communication.

Enable ACLs

Refer to the Secure Consul with Access Control Lists (ACLs) tutorial for instructions on setting up access control lists.

• Tokens have been created for all agents and services.

Setup a Certificate Authority

Refer to the Secure Consul Agent Communication with TLS Encryption tutorial for instructions on setting up a certificate authority.

• Agent certificates have been created and distributed to all agents.

Monitoring

• Telemetry has been enabled.
• API has been configured. New user and token have been created.

Failure Recovery

• Backups are being periodically captured.
• Outage recovery plan has been outlined.