# Step 2: Create a Service on IBM Cloud

Creating services on IBM Cloud is easy, and we have over a hundred different types of services you can create. To see the full list, visit <https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog> (or visit <https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog/labs> if you'd like to see our experimental 🧪 features!)

![IBM's Cloud Dashboard](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M2-l2fCZBdx8-wBWnpC%2F-M20y75JNEBvYdAy3Y4P%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-03-09%20at%206.04.01%20PM.png?alt=media\&token=0fa765f1-626a-40ea-af42-ad9d665bbec2)

For today's lab, we'll create and run a Visual Recognition service within five minutes.

## Step 2a: Create a Service through the Dashboard

First, let's find the Visual Recognition service inside the IBM Cloud resource list. We'll search for `visual`:

![](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M26pjlMuzJf6Ydoz2Yw%2F-M29Mj12PSkeFE5bPDxc%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-03-11%20at%209.12.39%20AM.png?alt=media\&token=090dc6bb-93e6-410a-93c8-67e020eb6d54)

Click on **Visual Recognition**.

On the service creation page, make sure the **Lite** plan is selected, and click the blue **Create** button:

![](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M26pjlMuzJf6Ydoz2Yw%2F-M29N31rxO2h-GyY_5yo%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-03-11%20at%209.13.33%20AM.png?alt=media\&token=3286097c-5dbc-43e6-b1e6-8a22361f20d2)

This service is free, but it will be removed after 30 days of inactivity.

## Step 2b: Retrieve your Credentials

Now, let's retrieve our service credentials so that we can classify an image. Click on Service Credentials on the left hand menu:

![](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M26pjlMuzJf6Ydoz2Yw%2F-M29NXhpK2-GFwHLRvCt%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-03-11%20at%209.15.40%20AM.png?alt=media\&token=d537dcd8-ee6a-419c-85d3-6b12daa27efa)

At the bottom of the page, click **View Credentials**

![](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M26pjlMuzJf6Ydoz2Yw%2F-M29NwDbo3ym71bo7DR9%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-03-11%20at%209.16.53%20AM.png?alt=media\&token=b6506df4-c25a-4168-8fce-cfc1e1e51b31)

Take note of the `apikey` and `url` parameters; we will use them in **step 2d**.

## Step 2c: Start the Cloud Shell

Now that you've created your service, let's ping it using a separate environment. Although we could do it from our local machine, IBM has a great tool for us called the Cloud Shell.

In the upper right hand corner of your IBM Cloud Dashboard, you'll see a small terminal icon:

![](https://845368379-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M0YJkXNeop-VQvo0z8l%2F-M2-l2fCZBdx8-wBWnpC%2F-M219MlL13gJyLjQfv7H%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=05c62679-22ff-4222-82e1-0eb3651f3663)

This is your **IBM Cloud Shell**. We'll be able to use this shell to ping our newly-created service.

## Step 2d: Call your Service

This is the command we'll execute in the cloud shell to test it. We'll replace `{apikey}` and `{url}` with the parameters from our IBM Cloud Visual Recognition service, and `{image_url}` with a publicly-available image that we'd like to analyze.

```
curl -u "apikey:{apikey}" "{url}/v3/classify?url={image_url}&version=2020-01-01"
```

Execute this command, and we'll get a JSON response showing the default classifier's analysis of the image. Good job, you've created and called an IBM Watson service!