HCP Consul tiers

This page explains the concept of HCP Consul cluster tiers. It describes how each tier supports multi-cloud production deployments, the billing models the tiers are available on, and the available deployment sizes for clusters at each tier. Deployments are measured in number of service instances they support.

When you create a new HashiCorp-managed Consul server in HCP Consul, you can choose between four cluster tiers: development, standard, plus, and premium. The tier you choose determines the cluster's connectivity when using WAN federation and cluster peering with HCP Consul.

Background

When you create a HashiCorp-managed Consul server, HashiCorp bootstraps a Consul server and uses your peered HashiCorp Virtual Network (HVN) to connect the Consul server to your cloud provider. This process simplifies the operations required to enable Consul's service discovery and service mesh features for services already deployed in AWS or Azure environments.

When you create a HashiCorp-managed server, you must choose one of four cluster tiers for your server. Each tier has size options to select from. A cluster tier is different from a cluster size. While cluster size determines how many service instances the Consul server can support, the cluster tier determines the server's ability to participate in multi-region and multi-cloud deployments. You cannot change a HashiCorp-managed cluster's size after creation, so when you select a tier it is important to know the size of the deployment you expect on each cluster.

Tiers vary in price according to their offerings. Standard tier clusters and plus tier on AWS are available to all users. Plus clusters on Azure and premium tier clusters on both AWS and Azure require an annual entitlement contract or flex billing subscription. Refer to billing overview for more information about billing models and terms.

For pricing information on product tiers, refer to HCP Consul pricing.

Cluster tiers

The following cluster tiers are available in HCP Consul:

• Development tier
• Standard tier
• Plus tier
• Premium tier

Tiers differ in their support for multi-region and multi-cloud deployments. Their availability is tied to specific billing models. The best tier to select depends on your organization's specific needs.

The following table summarizes the differences between the cluster tiers:

Development tier

Development tier clusters are available to all users. They support all Consul features across HCP enabled regions and cloud providers. Development tier clusters are designed for evaluation and testing purposes. They are deployed with a single node and are not suitable for production environments.

The following size options are available for development tier clusters:

Standard tier

Standard tier clusters are full-featured, production ready clusters best suited for single region workloads.

For example, a HashiCorp-managed standard tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1 can establish a cluster peering connection with any of the following clusters:

• a standard, plus, or premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1.
• a self-managed Enterprise cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1.

WAN federation between standard tier clusters is restricted to federating HCP-managed clusters in the same AWS region. WAN federation and cluster peering cannot be used on the same cluster concurrently.

The following size options are available for standard tier clusters:

HCP Consul deploys standard tier clusters with three server nodes. To provide high availability, HCP Consul deploys each node in a separate availability zone.

Plus tier

Plus tier clusters are full-featured, production ready clusters best suited for multi-region workloads in a single cloud provider.

For example, a HashiCorp-managed plus tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1 can establish a cluster peering connection with any of the following clusters:

• a standard, plus, or premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1.
• a plus or premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-west-2.
• a self-managed Enterprise cluster deployed in AWS us-west-2.

WAN federation between plus tier clusters is restricted to federating HCP-managed clusters across AWS regions. WAN federation and cluster peering cannot be used on the same cluster concurrently.

The following size options are available for plus tier clusters:

HCP Consul deploys plus tier clusters with three server nodes. To provide high availability, HCP Consul deploys each node in a separate availability zone.

Premium tier

Premium tier clusters are full-featured, production ready clusters best suited for multi-region workloads in any HCP supported cloud providers.

For example, a HashiCorp-managed premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1 can establish a cluster peering connection with any of the following clusters:

• a standard, plus, or premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-east-1.
• a plus or premium tier cluster deployed in AWS us-west-2.
• a premium tier cluster deployed in Azure CentralUS.
• a self-managed Enterprise cluster deployed in an on-premises data center.

The following size options are available for premium tier clusters:

HCP Consul deploys premium tier clusters with three server nodes. To provide high availability, HCP Consul deploys each node in a separate availability zone.