### [Read this on the main serverless docs site](https://www.serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/azure/guide/services) # Azure - Services A `service` is like a project. It's where you define your Azure Functions, the `events` that trigger them and any `resources` they require, all in a file called `serverless.yml`. To get started building your first Serverless Framework project, create a `service`. ## Organization In the beginning of an application, many people use a single Service to define all of the Functions, Events and Resources for that project. This is what we recommend in the beginning. ```bash myService/ serverless.yml # Contains all functions and infrastructure resources ``` However, as your application grows, you can break it out into multiple services. A lot of people organize their services by workflows or data models, and group the functions related to those workflows and data models together in the service. ```bash users/ serverless.yml # Contains 4 functions that do Users CRUD operations and the Users database posts/ serverless.yml # Contains 4 functions that do Posts CRUD operations and the Posts database comments/ serverless.yml # Contains 4 functions that do Comments CRUD operations and the Comments database ``` This makes sense since related functions usually use common infrastructure resources, and you want to keep those functions and resources together as a single unit of deployment, for better organization and separation of concerns. ## Creation To get started, you can simply use the `create` command to generate a new service: ```bash serverless create -t azure-nodejs --path ``` > Alternatively, you can use the `install` command to create a new service, based on an existing GitHub boilerplate: `serverless install --url https://github.com/azure/boilerplate-azurefunctions --name my-app` ## Contents You'll see the following files in your working directory: - `serverless.yml` - `handler.js` ### serverless.yml Each `service` configuration is managed in the `serverless.yml` file. The main responsibilities of this file are: - Declare a Serverless service - Define one or more functions in the service - Define the provider the service will be deployed to (and the runtime if provided) - Define any custom plugins to be used - Define events that trigger each function to execute (e.g. HTTP requests) - Allow events listed in the `events` section to automatically create the resources required for the event upon deployment - Allow flexible configuration using Serverless Variables You can see the name of the service, the provider configuration and the first function inside the `functions` definition which points to the `handler.js` file. Any further service configuration will be done in this file. ```yml # serverless.yml service: azfx-node-http provider: name: azure location: West US plugins: - serverless-azure-functions functions: hello: handler: handler.hello events: - http: true x-azure-settings: authLevel : anonymous ``` ### handler.js The `handler.js` file contains your function code. The function definition in `serverless.yml` will point to this `handler.js` file and the function exported here. ### event.json Create this file and add event data so you can invoke your function with the data via `serverless invoke -p event.json` ## Deployment When you deploy a Service, all of the Functions, and Events in your `serverless.yml` are translated into calls to the platform API to dynamically define those resources. To deploy a service, first `cd` into the relevant service directory: ```bash cd my-service ``` Then use the `deploy` command: ```bash serverless deploy ``` Check out the [deployment guide](https://serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/azure/guide/deploying/) to learn more about deployments and how they work. Or, check out the [deploy command docs](../cli-reference/deploy) for all the details and options. ## Removal To easily remove your Service from your Azure Functions account, you can use the `remove` command. Run `serverless remove -v` to trigger the removal process. As in the deploy step we're also running in the `verbose` mode so you can see all details of the remove process. Serverless will start the removal and informs you about it's process on the console. A success message is printed once the whole service is removed. The removal process will only remove the service on your provider's infrastructure. The service directory will still remain on your local machine so you can still modify and (re)deploy it to another stage, region or provider later on. ## Version Pinning The Serverless framework is usually installed globally via `npm install -g serverless`. This way you have the Serverless CLI available for all your services. Installing tools globally has the downside that the version can't be pinned inside package.json. This can lead to issues if you upgrade Serverless, but your colleagues or CI system don't. You can now use a new feature in your serverless.yml which is available only in the latest version without worrying that your CI system will deploy with an old version of Serverless. ### Pinning a Version To configure version pinning define a `frameworkVersion` property in your serverless.yaml. Whenever you run a Serverless command from the CLI it checks if your current Serverless version is matching the `frameworkVersion` range. The CLI uses [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/) so you can pin it to an exact version or provide a range. In general we recommend to pin to an exact version to ensure everybody in your team has the exact same setup and no unexpected problems happen. ### Examples #### Exact Version ```yml # serverless.yml frameworkVersion: "=1.0.3" … ``` #### Version Range ```yml # serverless.yml frameworkVersion: ">=1.0.0 <2.0.0" … ``` ## Installing Serverless in an existing service If you already have a Serverless service, and would prefer to lock down the framework version using `package.json`, then you can install Serverless as follows: ```bash # from within a service npm install serverless --save-dev ``` ### Invoking Serverless locally To execute the locally installed Serverless executable you have to reference the binary out of the node modules directory. Example: ``` node ./node_modules/serverless/bin/serverless deploy ```