AWS Quick Starts

HashiCorp Consul on AWS

Service discovery, health checking, key/value store, and more on the AWS Cloud

Deploy on AWS into a new VPC

(or deploy into an existing VPC)

View deployment guide

Quick Start architecture for HashiCorp Consul on the AWS Cloud

To install HashiCorp Consul on AWS, view the Quick Start deployment guide. You might also want to check out the AWS Quick Start for HashiCorp Vault, and view our complete Quick Start catalog.

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This Quick Start sets up a flexible, scalable AWS Cloud environment, and launches HashiCorp Consul automatically into a configuration of your choice.

Consul is a tool for discovering and configuring services in your infrastructure. Its features include service discovery, health checking, key/value store, and multiple datacenter support right out of the box.

The Quick Start includes AWS CloudFormation templates that automate the deployment, and a guide that provides step-by-step instructions to help you get the most out of your HashiCorp Consul implementation on the AWS Cloud.

  • What you'll build

    Use this Quick Start to set up the following HashiCorp Consul environment on AWS:

    • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets across three Availability Zones. This provides the network infrastructure for your HashiCorp Consul deployment.*
    • An Internet gateway to provide access to the Internet.*
    • In the public subnets, Linux bastion hosts to allow inbound Secure Shell (SSH) access to EC2 instances in the private subnets.*
    • In the public subnets, managed network address translation (NAT) gateways to allow outbound Internet access for resources in the private subnets.*
    • In the private subnets, an Auto Scaling group for a Consul server cluster. You can choose to create 3, 5, or 7 servers.
    • In the private subnets, an Auto Scaling group for Consul clients. The number of clients is set to 3 by default, but is user-configurable.
    • Consul Template (the consul-template daemon) installed on all nodes for integrating applications with Consul’s service catalog and key/value store.
    • Dnsmasq installed on all nodes for integrating applications with Consul’s DNS interface for service discovery.
    • Your choice to create a new VPC or deploy into your existing VPC on AWS. The template that deploys the Quick Start into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks above.


    For details, see the Quick Start deployment guide.

  • Deployment details

    Build your HashiCorp Consul cluster in a few simple steps:

    1. Sign up for an AWS account.
    2. Launch the Quick Start into a new VPC, if you want to build a new AWS infrastructure. (View template)
      -or-
      Launch the Quick Start into an existing VPC, if you already have your AWS environment set up. (View template)
      The deployment takes about 10 minutes.
    3. Access the Consul environment through the bastion hosts and SSH connections. 
    4. Access the Consul web UI.
    5. Get started with Consul services.


    To customize your deployment, you can choose different instance types for your resources, and change the number of Consul client and server nodes.  

    For detailed deployment and configuration instructions, see the Quick Start deployment guide.

  • Cost and licenses

    You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services used while running this Quick Start reference deployment. There is no additional cost for using the Quick Start.

    The AWS CloudFormation template for this Quick Start includes configuration parameters that you can customize. Some of these settings, such as instance type, will affect the cost of deployment. See the pricing pages for each AWS service you will be using for cost estimates.

    This Quick Start uses the open-source version of HashiCorp Consul, which doesn’t require a license.