Gossip Protocol

Consul uses a LAN gossip pool and a WAN gossip pool to perform different functions. The pools are able to perform their functions by leveraging an embedded Serf library. The library is abstracted and masked by Consul to simplify the user experience, but developers may find it useful to understand how the library is leveraged.

WAN Gossip Pool

The WAN pool is globally unique. All servers should participate in the WAN pool, regardless of datacenter. Membership information provided by the WAN pool allows servers to perform cross-datacenter requests. The integrated failure detection allows Consul to gracefully handle loss of connectivity—whether the loss is for an entire datacenter, or a single server in a remote datacenter.

Lifeguard Enhancements

Lifeguard completely resolves this issue with novel enhancements to SWIM.