We started this chapter by understanding the Consul architecture and how it operates using the WAN and LAN protocols between and within data centers. The control plane of Consul comprises Consul servers and clients. Then, we explained automatic mTLS for service discovery and encrypted communication between services.

Next, we looked at the Consul data plane, which uses Envoy sidecar proxies. The concepts of traffic routing and shifting were explained. The Consul data plane, in conjunction with the control plane, defines the Consul service mesh.

Now that we have looked at the fundamentals of Consul, in the next chapter we will install Consul so that we can perform some hands-on exercises.