What is the difference between a service definition file and a service configuration file?

An Azure Cloud services contains two xml files: ServiceDefinition.csdef and ServiceConfig.cscfg.

• Service definition file (.csdef) lists the settings used by Azure to define a Cloud Service. Example: roles name, endpoints, certificates, task to run at role starting.

• Service configuration file (.cscgf) gives the configuration for these settings. Example: number of intances per role, ports.

 

More information:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-model-and-package/#csdef

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-how-to-create-deploy/