~> **Cluster peering is currently in technical preview:** Functionality associated with cluster peering is subject to change. You should never use the technical preview release in secure environments or production scenarios. Features in technical preview may have performance issues, scaling issues, and limited support.
A peering token enables cluster peering between different datacenters. Once you generate a peering token, you can use it to establish a connection between clusters. Then you can export services and authorize other clusters to call those services.
You can generate peering tokens and initiate connections using the Consul API on any available agent. However, we recommend performing these operations through a client agent in the partition you want to connect.
To begin the cluster peering process, generate a peering token in one of your clusters. The other cluster uses this token to establish the peering connection.
Next, use the peering token to establish a secure connection between the clusters. In the client agents of “cluster-02,” establish the peering using the HTTP API. This endpoint does not generate an output unless there is an error.
In the peer parameter, specify a name for the first cluster. The `PeeringToken` parameter should include the entire peering token created in the first cluster.
When you connect server agents through cluster peering, they will peer their default partitions. To establish peerings for other partitions through server agents, you must specify the partitions you want to peer using the `Partition` field of the request body.
After you establish a connection between the clusters, you need to create a configuration entry that defines the services that are available for other clusters. Consul uses this configuration entry to advertise service information and support service mesh connections across clusters.
Before you proceed, wait for the clusters to sync and make services available to their peers. You can issue an endpoint query to [check the peered cluster status](#check-peered-cluster-status).
Before you can call services from peered clusters, you must set service intentions that authorize those clusters to use specific services. Consul prevents services from being exported to unauthorized clusters.
First, create a configuration entry and specify the `Kind` as `“service-intentions”`. Declare the service on "cluster-02" that can access the service in "cluster-01." The following example sets service intentions so that "backend-service" can access "frontend-service."
To confirm that you peered your clusters, you can [query the `/health/service` endpoint](/api-docs/health) of one cluster from the other cluster. For example, in "cluster-02," query the endpoint and add the `peer=cluster-01` query parameter to the end of the URL.
After you create a peering connection between clusters in different datacenters, you can “unpeer” the connected clusters. Deleting a peering connection stops data replication to the peer and deletes imported data, including services and CA certificates.