Getting Started

This guide will help you get started with Serverless Container Framework (SCF) by deploying a simple API.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20.x or later
• AWS Account with administrative access
• Docker installed and running

Installation & Setup

1. SCF resides within the Serverless Framework. Install the Serverless Framework CLI globally:

npm install -g serverless

2. Configure your AWS credentials using one of these methods. Additional options can be found here.

# Option 1: AWS CLI (recommended)
aws configure

# Option 2: Environment variables
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key-id
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-access-key
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=your-session-token

Getting Started

1. Start with an example project by cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/serverless/containers.git

2. Navigate to the example project directory, and install any dependencies:

cd example-express/service
npm install

Development

Ensure you are within the directory containing the serverless.containers.yml file.

cd example-express

Start the local development environment:

serverless dev

This starts a local emulation of AWS Application Load Balancer at http://localhost:3000. This will forward requests to your containers. Logs, requests and more from your containers will be available in the terminal. Your containers will auto-reload or rebuild on code changes.

Deployment

Deploy to AWS:

serverless deploy

The initial deployment creates AWS resources (ALB, VPC, etc.) and takes ~5-10 minutes. Subsequent deploys are faster.

Cleanup

Remove your deployment:

# Remove application only
serverless remove

# Remove all AWS resources including VPC
serverless remove --force

Troubleshooting

• Ensure Docker daemon is running for local development
• Check AWS credentials are properly configured using aws sts get-caller-identity
• View detailed logs with serverless dev --debug or serverless deploy --debug