For runtime specific guidance, including federating clusters across runtimes, refer to the following topics:

- [Extend network east/west on virtual machines](/consul/docs/east-west/vm#guidance)
- [Extend network east/west on Kubernetes](/consul/docs/east-west/k8s#guidance)
- [WAN federation between virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters](/consul/docs/east-west/wan-federation/k8s-vm)

## Reference documentation

For reference material related to the processes for extending your service mesh by linking segments of your network, refer to the following pages:

- [CLI reference: `consul join` command](/consul/commands/join)
- [CLI reference: `consul operator area` command](/consul/commands/operator/area)
- [CLI reference: `peering` command](/consul/commands/peering)
- [HTTP API reference: `/operator/area` endpoint](/consul/api-docs/operator/area)
- [HTTP API reference: `/peering` endpoint](/consul/api-docs/peering)
- [Mesh gateway configuration reference](/consul/docs/reference/proxy/connect-proxy)
- [Proxy defaults configuration reference](/consul/docs/reference/config-entry/proxy-defaults)