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docs	Prepared Queries (HTTP)	docs-agent-http-query	The Query endpoints are used to manage and execute prepared queries.

Prepared Query HTTP Endpoint

The Prepared Query endpoints are used to create, update, destroy, and execute prepared queries.

Prepared queries allow you to register a complex service query and then execute it later via its ID or name to get a set of healthy nodes that provide a given service. This is particularly useful in combination with Consul's DNS Interface as it allows for much richer queries than would be possible given the limited entry points exposed by DNS.

Consul 0.6.4 and later also supports prepared query templates. Templates are defined in a similar way to regular prepared queries but instead of applying to just a single query name, they can respond to names starting with a configured prefix. The service name being queried is computed using the matched prefix and/or a regular expression. This provides a powerful tool that lets you apply the features of prepared queries to a range (or potentially all) services with a small number of templates. Details about prepared query templates are covered below.

The following endpoints are supported:

• /v1/query: Creates a new prepared query or lists all prepared queries
• /v1/query/<query>: Updates, fetches, or deletes a prepared query
• /v1/query/<query or name>/execute: Executes a prepared query by its ID or optional name
• /v1/query/<query or name>/explain: Provides information about how a prepared query will be executed by its ID or optional name

Not all endpoints support blocking queries and all consistency modes, see details in the sections below.

The query endpoints support the use of ACL Tokens. Prepared queries have some special handling of ACL Tokens that are called out where applicable with the details of each endpoint.

See the Prepared Query ACLs internals guide for more details about how prepared query policies work.

/v1/query

The general query endpoint supports the POST and GET methods.

POST Method

When using the POST method, Consul will create a new prepared query and return its ID if it is created successfully.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter.

If ACLs are enabled, the client will need to supply an ACL Token with query write privileges for the Name of the query being created.

The create operation expects a JSON request body that defines the prepared query, like this example:

{
  "Name": "my-query",
  "Session": "adf4238a-882b-9ddc-4a9d-5b6758e4159e",
  "Token": "",
  "Service": {
    "Service": "redis",
    "Failover": {
      "NearestN": 3,
      "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]
    },
    "Near": "node1",
    "OnlyPassing": false,
    "Tags": ["primary", "!experimental"],
    "NodeMeta": {"instance_type": "m3.large"}
  },
  "DNS": {
    "TTL": "10s"
  }
}

Only the Service field inside the Service structure is mandatory, all other fields will take their default values if they are not included.

Name is an optional friendly name that can be used to execute a query instead of using its ID.

Session provides a way to automatically remove a prepared query when the given session is invalidated. This is optional, and if not given the prepared query must be manually removed when no longer needed.

Token, if specified, is a captured ACL Token that is reused as the ACL Token every time the query is executed. This allows queries to be executed by clients with lesser or even no ACL Token, so this should be used with care. The token itself can only be seen by clients with a management token. If the Token field is left blank or omitted, the client's ACL Token will be used to determine if they have access to the service being queried. If the client does not supply an ACL Token, the anonymous token will be used.

Consul version 0.6.3 and earlier would automatically capture the ACL Token for use in the future when prepared queries were executed and would execute with the same privileges as the definer of the prepared query. Older queries wishing to obtain the new behavior will need to be updated to remove their captured Token field. Capturing ACL Tokens is analogous to PostgreSQL’s SECURITY DEFINER attribute which can be set on functions. This change in effect moves Consul from using SECURITY DEFINER to SECURITY INVOKER by default for new Prepared Queries.

Near allows specifying a particular node to sort near based on distance sorting using Network Coordinates. The nearest instance to the specified node will be returned first, and subsequent nodes in the response will be sorted in ascending order of estimated round-trip times. If the node given does not exist, the nodes in the response will be shuffled. Using the magic _agent value is supported, and will automatically return results nearest the agent servicing the request. If unspecified, the response will be shuffled by default. This was added in Consul 0.7.

The set of fields inside the Service structure define the query's behavior.

Service is the name of the service to query. This is required.

Failover contains two fields, both of which are optional, and determine what happens if no healthy nodes are available in the local datacenter when the query is executed. It allows the use of nodes in other datacenters with very little configuration.

If NearestN is set to a value greater than zero, then the query will be forwarded to up to NearestN other datacenters based on their estimated network round trip time using Network Coordinates from the WAN gossip pool. The median round trip time from the server handling the query to the servers in the remote datacenter is used to determine the priority. The default value is zero. All Consul servers must be running version 0.6.0 or above in order for this feature to work correctly. If any servers are not running the required version of Consul they will be considered last since they won't have any available network coordinate information.

Datacenters contains a fixed list of remote datacenters to forward the query to if there are no healthy nodes in the local datacenter. Datacenters are queried in the order given in the list. If this option is combined with NearestN, then the NearestN queries will be performed first, followed by the list given by Datacenters. A given datacenter will only be queried one time during a failover, even if it is selected by both NearestN and is listed in Datacenters. The default value is an empty list.

OnlyPassing controls the behavior of the query's health check filtering. If this is set to false, the results will include nodes with checks in the passing as well as the warning states. If this is set to true, only nodes with checks in the passing state will be returned. The default value is false.

Tags provides a list of service tags to filter the query results. For a service to pass the tag filter it must have all of the required tags, and none of the excluded tags (prefixed with !). The default value is an empty list, which does no tag filtering.

NodeMeta provides a list of user-defined key/value pairs that will be used for filtering the query results to nodes with the given metadata values present. This was added in Consul 0.7.3.

TTL in the DNS structure is a duration string that can use s as a suffix for seconds. It controls how the TTL is set when query results are served over DNS. If this isn't specified, then the Consul agent configuration for the given service will be used (see DNS Caching). If this is specified, it will take precedence over any Consul agent-specific configuration. If no TTL is specified here or at the Consul agent level, then the TTL will default to 0.

The return code is 200 on success and the ID of the created query is returned in a JSON body:

{
  "ID": "8f246b77-f3e1-ff88-5b48-8ec93abf3e05"
}

Prepared Query Templates

Consul 0.6.4 and later also support prepared query templates. These are created similar to static templates, except with some additional fields and features. Here's an example:

{
  "Name": "geo-db",
  "Template": {
    "Type": "name_prefix_match",
    "Regexp": "^geo-db-(.*?)-([^\\-]+?)$"
  },
  "Service": {
    "Service": "mysql-${match(1)}",
    "Failover": {
      "NearestN": 3,
      "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]
    },
    "OnlyPassing": true,
    "Tags": ["${match(2)}"],
    "NodeMeta": {"instance_type": "m3.large"}
  }
}

The new Template structure configures a prepared query as a template instead of a static query. It has two fields:

Type is the query type, which must be name_prefix_match. This means that the template will apply to any query lookup with a name whose prefix matches the Name field of the template. In this example, any query for geo-db will match this query. Query templates are resolved using a longest prefix match, so it's possible to have high-level templates that are overridden for specific services. Static queries are always resolved first, so they can also override templates.

Regexp is an optional regular expression which is used to extract fields from the entire name, once this template is selected. In this example, the regular expression takes the first item after the "-" as the database name and everything else after as a tag. See the RE2 reference for syntax of this regular expression.

All other fields of the query have the same meanings as for a static query, except that several interpolation variables are available to dynamically populate the query before it is executed. All of the string fields inside the Service structure are interpolated, with the following variables available:

${name.full} has the entire name that was queried. For example, a DNS lookup for geo-db-customer-primary.query.consul in the example above would set this variable to geo-db-customer-primary.

${name.prefix} has the prefix that matched. This would always be geo-db for the example above.

${name.suffix} has the suffix after the prefix. For example, a DNS lookup for geo-db-customer-primary.query.consul in the example above would set this variable to -customer-primary.

${match(N)} returns the regular expression match at the given index N. The 0 index will have the entire match, and >0 will have the results of each match group. For example, a DNS lookup for geo-db-customer-primary.query.consul in the example above with a Regexp field set to ^geo-db-(.*?)-([^\-]+?)$ would return geo-db-customer-primary for ${match(0)}, customer for ${match(1)}, and primary for ${match(2)}. If the regular expression doesn't match, or an invalid index is given, then ${match(N)} will return an empty string.

See the query explain endpoint which is useful for testing interpolations and determining which query is handling a given name.

Using templates it's possible to apply prepared query behaviors to many services with a single template. Here's an example template that matches any query and applies a failover policy to it:

{
	"Name": "",
	"Template": {
		"Type": "name_prefix_match"
	},
	"Service": {
		"Service": "${name.full}",
		"Failover": {
			"NearestN": 3
		}
	}
}

This will match any lookup for *.query.consul and will attempt to find the service locally, and otherwise attempt to find that service in the next three closest datacenters. If ACLs are enabled, a catch-all template like this with an empty Name requires an ACL token that can write to any query prefix. Also, only a single catch-all template can be registered at any time.

GET Method

When using the GET method, Consul will provide a listing of all prepared queries.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter. This endpoint supports blocking queries and all consistency modes.

If ACLs are enabled, then the client will only see prepared queries for which their token has query read privileges. A management token will be able to see all prepared queries. Tokens will be redacted and displayed as <hidden> unless a management token is used.

This returns a JSON list of prepared queries, which looks like:

[
  {
    "ID": "8f246b77-f3e1-ff88-5b48-8ec93abf3e05",
    "Name": "my-query",
    "Session": "adf4238a-882b-9ddc-4a9d-5b6758e4159e",
    "Token": "<hidden>",
    "Service": {
      "Service": "redis",
      "Failover": {
        "NearestN": 3,
        "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]
      },
      "OnlyPassing": false,
      "Tags": ["primary", "!experimental"],
      "NodeMeta": {"instance_type": "m3.large"}
    },
    "DNS": {
      "TTL": "10s"
    },
    "RaftIndex": {
      "CreateIndex": 23,
      "ModifyIndex": 42
    }
  }
]

/v1/query/<query>

The query-specific endpoint supports the GET, PUT, and DELETE methods. The <query> argument is the ID of an existing prepared query.

PUT Method

The PUT method allows an existing prepared query to be updated.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter.

If ACLs are enabled, the client will need to supply an ACL Token with query write privileges for the Name of the query being updated.

The body is the same as is used to create a prepared query, as described above.

If the API call succeeds, a 200 status code is returned.

GET Method

The GET method allows an existing prepared query to be fetched.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter. This endpoint supports blocking queries and all consistency modes.

The returned response is the same as the list of prepared queries above, only with a single item present. If the query does not exist then a 404 status code will be returned.

If ACLs are enabled, then the client will only see prepared queries for which their token has query read privileges. A management token will be able to see all prepared queries. Tokens will be redacted and displayed as <hidden> unless a management token is used.

DELETE Method

The DELETE method is used to delete a prepared query.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter.

If ACLs are enabled, the client will need to supply an ACL Token with query write privileges for the Name of the query being deleted.

No body is required as part of this request.

If the API call succeeds, a 200 status code is returned.

/v1/query/<query or name>/execute

The query execute endpoint supports only the GET method and is used to execute a prepared query. The <query or name> argument is the ID or name of an existing prepared query, or a name that matches a prefix name for a prepared query template.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter. This endpoint does not support blocking queries, but it does support all consistency modes.

Adding the optional ?near= parameter with a node name will sort the resulting list in ascending order based on the estimated round trip time from that node. Passing ?near=_agent will use the agent's node for the sort. If this is not present, the default behavior will shuffle the nodes randomly each time the query is executed. Passing this option will override the built-in near parameter of a prepared query, if present.

An optional ?limit= parameter can be used to limit the size of the list to the given number of nodes. This is applied after any sorting or shuffling.

If an ACL Token was bound to the query when it was defined then it will be used when executing the request. Otherwise, the client's supplied ACL Token will be used.

No body is required as part of this request.

If the query does not exist then a 404 status code will be returned. Otherwise, a JSON body will be returned like this:

{
  "Service": "redis",
  "Nodes": [
    {
      "Node": {
        "ID": "40e4a748-2192-161a-0510-9bf59fe950b5",
        "Node": "foobar",
        "Address": "10.1.10.12",
        "TaggedAddresses": {
          "lan": "10.1.10.12",
          "wan": "10.1.10.12"
        },
        "NodeMeta": {"instance_type": "m3.large"}
      },
      "Service": {
        "ID": "redis",
        "Service": "redis",
        "Tags": null,
        "Port": 8000
      },
      "Checks": [
        {
          "Node": "foobar",
          "CheckID": "service:redis",
          "Name": "Service 'redis' check",
          "Status": "passing",
          "Notes": "",
          "Output": "",
          "ServiceID": "redis",
          "ServiceName": "redis"
        },
        {
          "Node": "foobar",
          "CheckID": "serfHealth",
          "Name": "Serf Health Status",
          "Status": "passing",
          "Notes": "",
          "Output": "",
          "ServiceID": "",
          "ServiceName": ""
        }
      ],
    "DNS": {
      "TTL": "10s"
    },
    "Datacenter": "dc3",
    "Failovers": 2
  }]
}

The Nodes section contains the list of healthy nodes providing the given service, as specified by the constraints of the prepared query.

Service has the service name that the query was selecting. This is useful for context in case an empty list of nodes is returned.

DNS has information used when serving the results over DNS. This is just a copy of the structure given when the prepared query was created.

Datacenter has the datacenter that ultimately provided the list of nodes and Failovers has the number of remote datacenters that were queried while executing the query. This provides some insight into where the data came from. This will be zero during non-failover operations where there were healthy nodes found in the local datacenter.

/v1/query/<query or name>/explain

The query explain endpoint supports only the GET method and is used to see a fully-rendered query for a given name. This is especially useful for finding which prepared query template matches a given name, and what the final query looks like after interpolation.

By default, the datacenter of the agent is queried; however, the dc can be provided using the ?dc= query parameter. This endpoint does not support blocking queries, but it does support all consistency modes.

If ACLs are enabled, then the client will only see prepared queries for which their token has query read privileges. A management token will be able to see all prepared queries. Tokens will be redacted and displayed as <hidden> unless a management token is used.

If the query does not exist then a 404 status code will be returned. Otherwise, a JSON body will be returned like this:

{
  "Query": {
    "ID": "8f246b77-f3e1-ff88-5b48-8ec93abf3e05",
    "Name": "my-query",
    "Session": "adf4238a-882b-9ddc-4a9d-5b6758e4159e",
    "Token": "<hidden>",
    "Name": "geo-db",
    "Template": {
      "Type": "name_prefix_match",
      "Regexp": "^geo-db-(.*?)-([^\\-]+?)$"
    },
    "Service": {
      "Service": "mysql-customer",
      "Failover": {
        "NearestN": 3,
        "Datacenters": ["dc1", "dc2"]
      },
      "OnlyPassing": true,
      "Tags": ["primary"],
      "NodeMeta": {"instance_type": "m3.large"}
    }
}

Even though this query is a template, it is shown with its Service fields interpolated based on the example query name geo-db-customer-primary.