layout: docs

page_title: Deploy service mesh proxies

description: Envoy and other proxies in Consul service mesh enable service-to-service communication across your network. Learn how to deploy service mesh proxies in this topic.

This topic describes how to create, register, and start service mesh proxies in Consul. Refer to [Service mesh proxies overview](/consul/docs/connect/proxies) for additional information about how proxies enable Consul functionalities. For information about deployed sidecar proxies, refer to [Deploy sidecar proxy services](/consul/docs/connect/proxies/sidecar-services).

Complete the following steps to deploy a service mesh proxy:

1. It is not required, but you can create a proxy defaults configuration entry that contains global passthrough settings for all Envoy proxies. Refer to [Proxy defaults configuration entry reference](/consul/docs/connect/config-entries/proxy-defaults) for additional information.

1. Create a service definition file and specify the proxy configurations in the `proxy` block.

1. Register the service using the API or CLI.

1. Start the proxy service.

If [ACLs](/consul/docs/security/acl) are enabled and you want to configure global Envoy settings in the [proxy defaults configuration entry](/consul/docs/connect/config-entries/proxy-defaults), you must present a token with `operator:write` permissions. Refer to [Create a service token](/consul/docs/security/acl/tokens/create/create-a-service-token) for additional information.

Create a service definition file and configure the following fields to define a service mesh proxy:

1. Set the `kind` field to `connect-proxy`. Refer to the [services configuration reference](/consul/docs/services/configuration/services-configuration-reference#kind) for information about other kinds of proxies you can declare.

1. Specify a name for the proxy service in the `name` field. Consul applies the configurations to any proxies you bootstrap with the same name.

1. In the `proxy.destination_service_name` field, specify the name of the service that the proxy represents.

1. Configure any additional proxy behaviors that you want to implement in the `proxy` block. Refer to the [Service mesh proxy configuration reference](/consul/docs/connect/registration/service-registration) for information about all parameters.

1. Specify a port number where other services registered with Consul can discover and connect to the proxies service in the `port` field. To ensure that services only allow external connections established through the service mesh protocol, you should configure all services to only accept connections on a loopback address.

Refer to the [Service mesh proxy configuration reference](/consul/docs/connect/proxy-config-reference) for example configurations.

Provide the service definition to the Consul agent to register your proxy service. You can use the same methods for registering proxy services as you do for registering application services:

- Place the service definition in a Consul agent's configuration directory and start, restart, or reload the agent. Use this method when implementing changes to an existing proxy service.

- Use the `consul services register` command to register the proxy service with a running Consul agent.

- Call the `/agent/service/register` HTTP API endpoint to register the proxy service with a running Consul agent.

Refer to [Register services and health checks](/consul/docs/services/usage/register-services-checks) for instructions.

In the following example, the `consul services register` command registers a proxy service stored in `proxy.hcl`:

Envoy requires a bootstrap configuration file before it can start. Use the [`consul connect envoy` command](/consul/commands/connect/envoy) to create the Envoy bootstrap configuration and start the proxy service. Specify the ID of the proxy you want to start with the `-proxy-id` option.

The following example command starts an Envoy proxy for the `web-proxy` service:

For details about operating an Envoy proxy in Consul, refer to the [Envoy proxy reference](/consul/docs/connect/proxies/envoy).