Setting up a development machine for Azure Service Fabric applications allows developers to test and debug microservices locally. Local cluster use the same runtime that will run in Azure.
Operating System
If you don’t have a license of Windows 10, you can install a free Windows 10 Insider Preview.
Download Windows 10 Insider Preview
You will be prompted every time during Visual Studio launch. To turn User Account Control off, press Start, type UserAccountControlSettings and press Enter. Move the slider to Never notify position and click OK.
IDE
There is a Community edition of Visual Studio which is free and ideal for starting with Windows development. You can use it alongside with Visual Studio Team Services which offers source control and work items management.
Download Visual Studio Community edition
Get started with Visual Studio Team Services
You have to launch the Visual Studio as an administrator. To do this every time automatically, pin Visual Studio to the task bar, right click to the icon, then Visual Studio 2017 → Properties → Advanced… → and check Launch as administrator.
SDK & Tools
Service Fabric Local Cluster is useful for development. Service Fabric Tools are part of the Azure Development and Management workload in Visual Studio 2017. Tools for Visual Studio 2015 needs to be installed separately.
Install the SDK for Visual Studio 2017
Install the SDK and tools for Visual Studio 2015
Local cluster
To set up a local cluster, press Start and type Service Fabric Local Cluster Manager and press Enter. From system tray right click to the Service Fabric icon and navigate to Setup Local Cluster → 1 Node. Wait few seconds until you see a notification Service Fabric Local Cluster Manager setup completed successfully.