What is a Service?

A service is a resource that represents the backend service for an API.

For an API, you can either configure the backend service explicitly, also referred to as inline, or by referencing a service resource. Using service resources allows you to configure a backend service once and then use it for any policy. This also makes updating a backend service easier.

When you create a service, a name and a service URL are required. A version and a description are optional and can be added at any point. If a gateway node needs to use a proxy to reach the service, you can use the gateway node proxy option. Note that if you select this option and a node, and the API using this service does not require a proxy, the request will not be sent through a proxy because one is not defined for that node. If another node requires a proxy, the request is sent through the proxy.