Hub-and-spokes topology with connectivity between spokes

Consul
1

Hello!

I am researching multi datacenter setups with Cluster Peering and hub-and-spokes topology.
I don’t understand if hub-and-spokes topology allows communication between two (or more) spokes via the hub. Is that possible? Judging by how a star network would work, I’d like to believe it is.
I’m reading here Federated Network Areas (Enterprise) | Consul | HashiCorp Developer that spokes should not communicate with each other.
And here Federate multiple datacenters with network areas | Consul | HashiCorp Developer that what I need might be done with Consul Enterprise, but with WAN federation.

Thank you in advance!

2

Hi @pavelnenov, are you asking in the context of Consul for service discovery or service mesh?

Network areas allows multiple data centers to federate through a central hub when using Consul for service discovery.

When Consul for service mesh, Consul does not support hubs to act as a transit between spokes. Spokes need to directly peer in order to exchange service catalog information and they need direct IP connectivity between the mesh gateways in order to facilitate service-to-service communication over the mesh.

3

Thank you for the reply, Blake!

I am looking for a mesh solution. An example would be a warehouse franchise business.

  • I have a central warehouse (the hub)
  • I have many local warehouses (spokes/franchises)
  • I am connecting via Cluster peering, exposing some of the services I need to for cross-cluster communication
  • Spokes’ exposed services communicate with each other via the hub
  • I am looking to use this topology not for high availability or redundancy, but for managing a network of autonomous entities controlled by the center.

Is a the mesh (WAN federated or cluster peered) a viable solution for such a use case?
Network areas require WAN federation, right?

Thanks!
Pavel