Windows Azure Service Definition Schema
Updated: January 24, 2011
The Windows Azure service definition file defines the service model for an application. The file contains the definitions for the roles available to a service, specifies the service endpoints, and establishes configuration settings for the service. Configuration setting values are set in the service configuration file, as described by the Service Configuration Schema.
The default extension for the service definition file is .csdef.
Basic service definition schema
The service definition must contain at least one role node. It can contain up to five roles defined in a single definition and you can mix role types. The service definition also contains the optional NetworkTrafficRules node which restricts which roles can communicate to specified internal endpoints.
The basic format of the service definition file is as follows.
<ServiceDefinition …>
<WebRole …>
…
</WebRole>
<WorkerRole …>
…
</WorkerRole>
<VirtualMachineRole …>
…
</VirtualMachineRole>
<NetworkTrafficRules>
…
</NetworkTrafficRules>
</ServiceDefinition>
Schema definitions
The following topics describe the schema for each of the role types and the NetworkTrafficRules node.
