---
layout: docs
page_title: Manage Targets
sidebar_title: Manage Targets
description: How to manage Boundary targets
---
# Manage Targets
[Targets](/docs/concepts/domain-model/targets) are Boundary resources which contain a [host-set](/docs/concepts/domain-model/host-sets). A target allows Boundary users to define an endpoint with a default-port and a protocol to establish a session. Unless specified with a `-host-id` flag, Boundary will choose one [host](/docs/concepts/domain-model/hosts) in the host-set to connect to at random.
In this section, we'll show you the basics of how to define a host, host-set, and a target in Boundary on the CLI, the admin console, and using our [Terraform provider](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-boundary).
We assume you're running Boundary in dev mode and have a default static host-catalog of `hcst_1234567890`. We also assume you've logged in on the command line and the admin console. See the output of `boundary dev` for these login values.
~> Note that all resource ID's in this example are illustration only - ID's are uniquely generated for every resource upon creation with the exception being
generated resources in `dev mode`. Please make sure to use the resource ID's that are generated when running this example. For example, if you run
`boundary users create`, use the resource ID of the user seen in stdout, not the ID in the example command.
## Define a Host
For this example, we're going to create a target to access postgres on `localhost`. This assumes a couple of things:
1. The host address is `127.0.0.1`
2. The target port is `:5432`
```bash
boundary hosts create static -name postgres -description "Postgres host" -address "127.0.0.1" -host-catalog-id "hcst_1234567890"
Host information:
Created Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:12:39 PDT
Description: Postgres host
Host Catalog ID: hcst_1234567890
ID: hst_N5l67hLYrQ
Name: postgres
Type: static
Updated Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:12:39 PDT
Version: 1
Scope:
ID: p_1234567890
Name: Generated project scope
Parent Scope ID: o_1234567890
Type: project
Attributes:
address: 127.0.0.1
```
Navigate to the default host catalog:
Select new host from the `manage` dropdown:
Fill in the required information about our postgres host:
View the host in the catalog:
To define this same host using our Terraform provider:
```hcl
resource "boundary_host" "postgres" {
type = "static"
name = "postgres"
description = "Postgres host"
address = "127.0.0.1"
host_catalog_id = "hcst_1234567890"
}
```
## Define a Host-Set
Host-sets allow us to group hosts of similar interests together. A target works off of host-sets, so even though we are only defining one host in this example, we're going to create a host-set of one host.
```bash
boundary host-sets create static -name "postgres" -description "Postgres host set" -host-catalog-id hcst_1234567890
Host Set information:
Created Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:27:10 PDT
Description: Postgres host set
Host Catalog ID: hcst_1234567890
ID: hsst_z7gDCPSig5
Name: postgres
Type: static
Updated Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:27:10 PDT
Version: 1
Scope:
ID: p_1234567890
Name: Generated project scope
Parent Scope ID: o_1234567890
Type: project
```
Navigate to the host catalog and the `host sets` tab, select `Create Host Set` from `manage` dropdown:
Fill in the host-set definition:
See the new host set in the host-catalog view:
To define this host-set in Terraform:
```hcl
resource "boundary_host_set" "postgres" {
type = "static"
name = "postgres"
description = "Host set for postgres"
host_catalog_id = host_catalog_id = "hcst_1234567890"
// taken from the Terraform example above
host_ids = [ boundary_host.postgres.id ]
}
```
## Define Target
```bash
boundary targets create tcp -name 'postgres' -description 'Postgres target' -default-port 5432 -scope-id p_1234567890 -session-connection-limit '-1'
Target information:
Created Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:43:12 PDT
Description: Postgres target
ID: ttcp_CzVQA3adBf
Name: postgres
Session Connection Limit: -1
Session Max Seconds: 28800
Type: tcp
Updated Time: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:43:12 PDT
Version: 1
Scope:
ID: p_1234567890
Name: Generated project scope
Parent Scope ID: o_1234567890
Type: project
Attributes:
Default Port: 5432
```
Navigate to your the default project:
Then the targets view and choose `new` target:
Fill in the Target info:
See the Target in the targets view:
To define this target in Terraform:
```hcl
resource "boundary_target" "postgres" {
type = "tcp"
name = "postgres"
description = "Postgres target"
scope_id = "p_1234567890"
session_connection_limit = -1
default_port = 5432
// taken from the example above
host_set_ids = [
boundary_host_set.postgres.id
]
}
```