Sean Iannuzzi's Blog

WCF Diagnostics Implementation in 5 Easy Steps

seaniannuzzi — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:14:00 GMT

Overview

As we are all aware debugging components in a service oriented architecture it is generally a struggle without having to write a fair amount of code to trace and log the information. Even using common utilities such as Log4Net or the Enterprise Libraries it still requires you to capture the information you want to have logged. To my surprise this is no longer the case with Windows Communication Foundation Services Tracing Capabilities.

There are so many features on how to implement WCF debugging, errors logging and tracing that I am only going to focus on a very simple case for the sake of simplicity. With that said, I am only going to show a few different settings that will establish a level of diagnostics that in most cases should be found very useful. Especially in cases where you need to show what package and payload information was sent to and received from client’s consuming services.

Let’s get started…..

Step 1: Create a new WCF Service Application

Step 2: Open the Web.Config and Add the Following Sections

<system.diagnostics>
    <trace autoflush="true" />
    <sources>
        <source name="System.ServiceModel"
              switchValue="Information, ActivityTracing"
              >
        <listeners>
          <add name="xml"/>
        </listeners>
      </source>
      <source name="System.ServiceModel.MessageLogging">
        <listeners>
          <add name="xml"/>
        </listeners>
      </source>
    </sources>
    <sharedListeners>
      <add name="xml"
           type="System.Diagnostics.XmlWriterTraceListener"
initializeData= "C:\temp\WCFDiagnosticsExample.svclog" />
    </sharedListeners>
</system.diagnostics>

<!--

Add this in your “system.serviceModel” section.

-->

Step 3: Run the Service

The next step is to simply run your service and you should see the svclog file created in the directory you specified.

Step 4: Open the service log file using the WCF Service Trace Viewer (svctraceviewer.exe)

a ) Launch the WCF Service Trace Viewer (svctraceviewer.exe) as show below

b) Next select your log file from the location and path you specified in your web.config.

Note:

What is great is that you now have the XML data that was sent to your service and the XML that was sent from your service.
You also have the exception that was thrown and any details related to the call stack.
The data that is in the trace also includes your data contracts received and returned with all data captured which is perfect when you have to show what data you received versus what was sent to your service.

Additional Features and Custom Tracing

As easy as it was to enable the tracing you can add your own custom trace as well simply by adding in your own custom trace source and a few lines of code.

Step 5: Add Custom Trace

a) The quick and simple way to accomplish this is to add your own Custom Trace Source to the diagnostics information.

b) then add the necessary code in your service to log any information needed.

TraceSource traceSource = new TraceSource("CustomTrace");
traceSource.TraceData(TraceEventType.Information, 0, "WCF Diagnostics Trace Example");
traceSource.Flush();

(assumes you added “using System.Diagnostics;” to the top of the class)

Summary

In 5 easy steps we now have enabled logging, tracing, and a custom trace various details about the WCF Service.

References and Links

Service Trace Viewer : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms732023.aspx

Service Model Registration Tool: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms732012.aspx

Configuration Editor: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms732009.aspx

Windows Azure–Windows Azure Cloud Project Deployment and Remote Connections

seaniannuzzi — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:46:53 GMT

Overview

There are several options when deploying your solution to Windows Azure and based on the types of updates required it may be best for you to leverage each of the deployment options in different ways and at different times. In this blog post I am going to focus on the most common deployment options available and then discuss when and why to use one deployment method versus another. For the purposes of keeping this post as simple as possible, I am not going to focus on a multi region deployment and am only going to focus on a single region deployment.

The Quick Read for this Post

The quick and easy read on this post is to look at the “Quick Deployment Options Benefit List” and determine what types are more common in your organization or for your project. In most cases, it should be pretty clear what Deployment Option would be most appropriate for your needs. Based on the Option that seems best, refer to that section of the post.

Option 1: Publish Locally – With Manual Service Package Deployment

Option 1 entails creating the Windows Azure Service Package files locally and then manually uploading them to the Windows Azure.

Option 2: Publish Remotely – With Automated Package Deployment

Option 2 automatically will publish the “service configuration” and “package” files to Windows Azure based on the credentials, environment, and storage account selected.

Option 3: Publish Remotely – Remote Desktop Session

Option 3 automatically will publish the “service configuration” and “package” files to Windows Azure based on the credentials, environment, and storage account selected and will also allow you to connect to your Windows Azure Cloud instance remotely. The remote connection will provide benefits for IIS Administration, File Explorer, Copy/Paste, quick file updates, and Remote Server Administration.

Quick Deployment Options Benefit List

	Option 1 – Manual	Option 2 – Publish Remote	Option 3 – Publish Remote with Remote Desktop Session
Initial Setup for Deployment	average	easy	involved
Create New Instances	X	X	X
Update Instances	X	X	X
IIS Administration			X
Support IIS Recycle			X
Supports Copy/Paste			X
Support File Explorer			X
File Updates	(requires instance updates)	(requires instance updates)	X – very easy
Projected Update Time	15m – 2 hours	15m – 2 hours	as fast as it take to copy files
Ease of Updates	Very time consuming	Very time consuming	easy and convenient
Knowledge of IIS Needed (app pools, etc)	No	No	Yes (true remote desktop session)
Server Knowledge Needed	No	No	Yes (true remote desktop session)
Restart Instance	partially - (in dashboard only)	partially - (in dashboard only)	Yes
Experience Level	Novice to Expert	Novice to Expert	Intermediate to Export
Risk Level	Medium	Low	High

Note:

There are many more features and benefits to each of these options, but hopefully this chart is found helpful when deciding what deployment method to use for your Windows Azure Cloud Deployments.

Summary

Based on these options you may be wondering why you would need to use one deployment option versus another or how this could impact you on a project. The simple answer is fairly straight forward. If you decide to publish your application after each change, it is likely that you are going to have to wait for your instances to be recreated. This process of Windows Azure stopping the instances, and recreating them is very time consuming and definitely not preferred if you are use to deploying your applications internally. With Windows Azure this initial process could take as short as 15 minutes or several hours. Rest assure if you have not reviewed the chart above you are spending way too much time deploying your solution to the Cloud, especially for simple updates.

Preliminary Setup

With that said, let’s get started by creating a Windows Azure Cloud Project.

Cloud Project Setup: New Windows Azure Project Setup

Let’s start by creating a new Cloud Project. For this sample I just titled my project “AzurePublishingBestPractices”

For the role selection you can select either a MVC Role or a Web Role. For this example I selected a MVC 2 Web Role.

Once the project wizard is complete we are ready to setup the cloud for our deployment.

New Hosted Service: Windows Azure New Hosted Service Setup

Now that we have created our .Net Cloud Project, login to Windows Azure and navigate to your Hosted Services and click on the “New Hosted Service” menu item.

“Name” the service, set the “URL Prefix”, set your “Region” and then select “Do Not Deploy”. For this blog I named the service “ WindowsAzurePublishingBestPractices”.

Once the service is created you are ready to publish your Cloud Project to Windows Azure.

Option 1: Publish Locally – With Manual Service Package Deployment

The first option we will explore is deploying your cloud project by publishing your project locally and then uploading the package and service configuration files manually.

Step 1: Right Click on Your Project and Click “Publish”

Step2: On the Deployment Screen select “Create Service Package Only” and Click “OK”

Once the package is created, Windows Explorer will open to the location where the files were created. In that directory you should see two files:

“[yourproject].cspkg”

“ServiceConfiguration.cscfg”

Note:

For the convenience of this example, copy the full path into the clipboard as we are going to need that for the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard in the next step.

Step 3: Go back to your Windows Azure Platform Dashboard and Click on “New Production Deployment”

On the “Create a New Deployment Screen”, add a “Deployment Name” and then browse to the files that you published locally. Once you are finished click on “OK”.

Note:

If you receive a warning indicating that you only have 1 instance configuration please adjust your instance count to 2. For this example I am only going to configure 1 instance.

Once the instance(s) have been created, your site should be operational and deployed to the cloud.

Option 1 – Updates and Summary

In this case your initial setup may take a bit of time for Windows Azure to create the Role, create the Instance(s), etc. and at this point you may be thinking this is what is required or normal for this type of deployment. For the most part you are correct. However, if you take this approach with every update, Windows Azure will delete the existing instance and recreate a new instance for each deployment. This surely is not ideal, and based on the fact that the initial deployment is likely to take 15 minutes to an hour+, this option is not very optimal at all. In addition, given all of the manually steps we needed to follow in this case this option it is not preferred and could introduce error if you accidently select the wrong files. Even worse would be if you waited an hour for a deployment only to find that you have a spelling error or a minor CSS issue. You surely would not want to wait another hour for this update.

This brings up to Option 2. Could this be better?????

Option 2: Publish Remotely – With Automated Package Deployment

Our second option we will review is Deploying to the Cloud using the Automated Deployment. Well to start this one sounds better then the first one based on the fact that it is automated. :)

Step 1: Right Click on Your Project and Click “Publish”

Step 2: On the Deployment Screen select “Deploy your Windows Azure Project to Windows Azure” and Click “OK”

Note:

You will need to select your credentials, deployment target, storage account, and deployment label. For more information on how to create your credentials please refer to the Windows Azure Help Topic.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff683676.aspx

In this case if you followed this tutorial and completed Option 1, then Click “OK” the delete the existing deployment when prompted.

Step 3: Monitoring the Automated Deployment

So far this approach seems much easier then publishing the files locally, logging into the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard and then uploading your files manually. So far so good correct?????

Option 2 – Updates and Summary

With Option 2 the deployment is likely to still take a bit of time for Windows Azure to create the Role, create the Instance(s) etc. You surely saved some time not having to manually upload files to the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard. However, the issues still exist around updates. If you needed to update a spelling error or CSS file you are still in the same boat with Option 2 as with Option 1.

Which brings up to Option 3.

Option 3: Publish Remote– Remote Desktop Session

Option 3 is going to require is little bit of setup up front setup in order to provide the ability to save time later. I am not going to go into a lot of detail on how to setup Azure Connect as that information can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433026.aspx.

Step 1: Windows Azure – Virtual Network - Install Local Endpoint

In order to allow a remote desktop session to be established you first must install a local endpoint from the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard under the “Virtual Network” Menu Item.

Click on the Install “Local Endpoint”

Step 2: Install Local Endpoint – Copy the link to the Clipboard and then begin your installation

Step 3: Download Azure Connect and Complete the Installation Wizard

There are many options available for setting up and configuring Windows Azure Connect.

For this blog I am going to try to keep this very simple and straight forward.

Step 4: Get an Activation Token

Click on the Get Activation Token Button and Copy the Activation Token to your clipboard.

Good news we are almost done. :)

Step 5: Activate your Local Endpoint with the Activation Token

Note:

To get to the Windows Azure Connect Activation Area, right click on your Web Role and click on “Properties”.
Then click on the Virtual Network Tab.
As shown in the screenshot above, click on the Activate Windows Azure Connect.
Now paste your activation token into the text box.

Step 6: Configure Remote Desktop Roles and Connections

To configure you Remote Desktop Roles and Connection. Right Click on the Cloud Project and Select Publish. From the Publish Screen Click on “Configure Remote Desktop Connections”

Note:

A best practice would be to lock these connections down by role, but for the simplicity of this blog we are going to allow connections for all roles. Please refer to the links above on setup for Remote Connections and some of the advanced options available. You can always disable the remote connection by unchecking the Remote Access “Enabled” checkbox from the Windows Azure Dashboard.

Step 7: Create the Remote Desktop Connection Certificate and Set Login Credentials

The next step is to create a new certificate that will be used to ensure that you are the only person able to connect to the server.

After you create the certificate, select the certificate in the list and then provide a user name and password to login to the Cloud instance.

Then click on “OK”

Note:

If you attempt to deploy your project now you will receive an error as shown below.

This error is caused by not having the certificate in the Windows Azure Service.

Step 8: Upload your Certificate to your Hosted Service Instance

Navigate back into the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard and select your service. Once you have selected your service click in the Certificates Folder.

Then Click on “Add Certificate” and browse to the appropriate exported certificate file.

Enter your password and click on “OK”.

The end result will look as follows:

Now you are ready to publish your application to the cloud.

Note:

If you are not sure where the certificate is located or have not exported the certificate. Please click on the “View ” and then Export your certificate.

Step 9: Connect to your instance using Remote Desktop

To connect to your instance, navigate back into the Windows Azure Platform Dashboard and select your service. From your service expand the instance and click on the particular instance for which you would like to connect.

Then click on the connect Menu Icon.

When prompted enter in the credentials you setup in the previous steps.

Once connected you now have access to the cloud instance as if it were located in your own data center. Now that you are connected remotely you can restart IIS, recycle the application pool, make file updates, copy and paste files from explorer to your remote desktop connection and many other options. Surely you could use cloud storage for your images, and css files as another option as well to save time on your deployment, but this blog was to demonstrate the deployment options and leveraging remote connections to the cloud.

Option 3 – Updates and Summary

With Option 3 there obviously some overhead with setting up the remote connection, but hopefully by logging directly into the cloud instance via Remote Desktop you can truly see this value. Especially if you need to perform a quick CSS update, replace an image or update a file. You surely would not want to wait 15m or 2 hours to make this update by tearing down your cloud instances and redeploying.

There are some downsides to this approach, one being if you have a lot of instances you will have a lot of updates to make. Another downside is knowledge of IIS and Web Server Setup. With the other deployment options you do not need to understand IIS much at all other then deploying the package.

The key benefit with this Option is to save you time in a pinch where you do not need to reestablish all of the instances and only need to make minor updates.

Quick Deployment Options Benefit List

	Option 1 – Manual	Option 2 – Publish Remote	Option 3 – Publish Remote with Remote Desktop Session
Initial Setup for Deployment	average	easy	involved
Create New Instances	X	X	X
Update Instances	X	X	X
IIS Administration			X
Support IIS Recycle			X
Supports Copy/Paste			X
Support File Explorer			X
File Updates	(requires instance updates)	(requires instance updates)	X – very easy
Projected Update Time	15m – 2 hours	15m – 2 hours	as fast as it take to copy files
Ease of Updates	Very time consuming	Very time consuming	easy and convenient
Knowledge of IIS Needed (app pools, etc)	No	No	Yes (true remote desktop session)
Server Knowledge Needed	No	No	Yes (true remote desktop session)
Restart Instance	partially - (in dashboard only)	partially - (in dashboard only)	Yes
Experience Level	Novice to Expert	Novice to Expert	Intermediate to Export
Risk Level	Medium	Low	High

I hope that you find this post helpful and enjoy.

Comments and/or questions are always welcome.

WP7 Tips–Part I– Media File Coding Techniques to help pass the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Certification Requirements

seaniannuzzi — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:51:00 GMT

Overview

Developing an application that plays media files on a Windows Phone 7 Device seems fairly straight forward. However, what can make this a bit frustrating are the necessary requirements in order to pass the WP7 marketplace requirements so that your application can be published. If you are new to this development, be aware of these common challenges that are likely to be made. Below are some techniques and recommendations on how optimize your application to handle playing MP3 and/or WMA files that needs to adhere to the marketplace requirements.

Windows Phone 7 Certification Requirements

Windows Phone 7 Developers Blog

Some common challenges are:

Not prompting the user if another media file is playing in the background before playing your media file

Not allowing the user to control the volume

Not allowing the user to mute the sound

Not allowing the media to be interrupted by a phone call

To keep this as simple as possible I am only going to focus on what “not to do” and what “to do” in order to implement a simple media solution.

Things you will need or may be useful to you before you begin:

Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Feature Packs

Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools

Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Windows Phone Emulator Resources
Silverlight 4 Tools For Visual Studio
XNA Game Studio 4.0
Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone

Note:

Please keep in mind you do not need all of these downloaded and installed, it is just easier to have all that you need now rather than add them on later.

Objective Summary

Create a Windows Phone 7 – Windows Media Sample Application. The application will implement many of the required features in order to pass the WP7 marketplace certification requirements in order to publish an application to WP7’s marketplace.

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to indicate that this application will always pass as the requirements may change or be updated)

Step 1: – Create a New Windows Phone 7 Project

Step 2: – Update the Title and Application Name of your WP7 Application

For this example I changed:

the Title to: “DOTNETNUZZI WP7 MEDIA SAMPLE - v1.00”

and the Page Title to: “media magic”.

Note:

I also updated the background.

Step 3: – XAML - Media Element Preparation and Best Practice

Before we begin the next step I just wanted to point out a few things that you should not do as a best practice when developing an application for WP7 that is playing music. Please keep in mind that these requirements are not the same if you are playing Sound Effects and are geared towards playing media in the background.

If you have coded this – be prepared to change it:

To avoid a failure from the market place remove all of your media source elements from your XAML or simply create them dynamically. To keep this simple we will remove the source and set the AutoPlay property to false to ensure that there are no media elements are active when the application is started.

Proper example of the media element with No Source:

Some Additional Settings - Add XAML Support for a Mute Button

Step 4: – Boolean to handle toggle of Mute Feature

Step 5: – Add Event Handler for Main Page Load

Step 6: – Add Reference to the XNA Framework

Step 7: – Add two Using Statements to Resolve the Namespace of Media and the Application Bar

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media;
using Microsoft.Phone.Shell;

Step 8: – Add the Method to Check the Media State as Shown Below

Step 9: – Add Code to Mute the Media File

Step 10: – Add Code to Play the Media File

//if the state of the media has been checked you are good to go.
media_sample.Play();

Note:

If we tried to perform this operation at this point you will receive the following error:

System.InvalidOperationException was unhandled Message=FrameworkDispatcher.Update has not been called. Regular FrameworkDispatcher.Update calls are necessary for fire and forget sound effects and framework events to function correctly.

See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=193853 for details.

StackTrace:
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.FrameworkDispatcher.AddNewPendingCall(ManagedCallType callType, UInt32 arg)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.UserAsyncDispatcher.HandleManagedCallback(ManagedCallType managedCallType, UInt32 managedCallArgs) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.UserAsyncDispatcher.AsyncDispatcherThreadFunction()

It is not recommended that you just add the FrameworkDispatcher.Update(); call before playing the media file.

It is recommended that you implement the following class to your solution and implement this class in the app.xaml.cs file.

Step 11: – Add FrameworkDispatcher Features

I recommend creating a class named XNAAsyncDispatcher and adding the following code:

After you have added the code accordingly, you can now implement this into your app.xaml.cs file as highlighted below.

Note:

If you application sound file is not playing make sure you have the proper “Build Action” set such as Content.

Running the Sample

Now that we have some of the foundation created you should be able to run the application successfully. When the application launches your sound options should be set accordingly when the “checkMediaState” method is called. As a result the application will properly setup the media options and/or alert the user accordinglyper the certification requirements.

In addition, the sample also shows a quick way to mute the sound in your application by simply removing the URI source of the media file.

If everything successfully compiled the application should look similar to below.

Summary

At this point we have a fully functional application that provides techniques on how to avoid some common challenges when working with media files and developing applications for Windows Phone 7. The techniques mentioned above should make things a little easier and helpful in getting your WP7 application approved and published on the Marketplace.

The next blog post will be titled:

WP7 Tips–Part II - How to write code that will pass the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Requirements for Themes (light and dark).

If anyone has any questions or comments please comment on this blog.

Publishing to Windows Azure using Windows Azure Service Management API.

seaniannuzzi — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:47:00 GMT

In many cases publishing to the Windows Azure is fairly straight forward and has become even more so with the completely integrated Windows Azure Service Management API. Prior to the API being enabled you had to create a package and deploy the package manually to the Cloud by selecting your Package and Configuration file. This is no longer the case with the Windows Azure Services Management API.

In addition, the Windows Services API seems to be a bit more integrated into Windows Azure. This could just be my perception of the services, but it seems that when I “cancel” or want to stop an already existing publish that it work faster using the API. I have also seen cases were the Cloud Services dashboard appears to be a bit behind with the status of the deployment.

In this post I will provide the information you will need in order to setup the Windows Azure Service Management API as this service requires the registration of a client side certificate and subscription ID. Below you will find screenshots of each step and the final result of a publish using the Management API.

Note:

When publishing with the Management API it also provides an automatic label so that you can easily track your deployments.
Before you being the following steps below, please either open your Windows Azure project or Create a New One and then follow the steps below.

Figure 1.00 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Publish

Right click on your Cloud Project and Click Publish

Figure 1.01 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Add New Hosted Service Credential

In the publish Cloud Service Dialog click on the Credentials Dropdown and Click “Add”

Figure 1.02 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Add New Hosted Service Credential

An authentication dialog will be shown prompting you “Select” or “Create” a certificate that will be used for authentication of the Management API. I suggest you create a “New” certificate.

Figure 1.03 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Create New Authentication Certificate

In the Authentication certificate dropdown click on “Create”

Figure 1.04 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Enter a Friendly Name for your Authentication Certificate

Enter a Friendly Name for your Authentication Certificate

Figure 1.05 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Certificate Created.

Now that you have created the certificate the next step will be to upload the certificate to the Cloud and associate it with your Subscription.

Figure 1.06 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Copy Certificate Path

To save time click on the Copy Certificate Path link as shown below.

NOTE:

For these next steps you will need to login to your Windows Azure Account.

Figure 1.07 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Managing My API Certificates

Login to Windows Azure
Click on your Azure Services
Click on the Account Tab
Click on the “Manage My API Certificates” Link

Figure 1.08 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Paste the Copied Certificate Path

Click in the Textbox Area or Click on the Browse button
Paste in the path to the certificate your generated earlier.

Figure 1.09 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Certificate Verification

Once you have uploaded your certificate you are just about finished. Verify that your certificate was installed as shown below.

Figure 1.10 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Certificate Verification

Next click back on the Account Tab
Then locate and select your Subscription ID
Once you have selected your Subscription ID navigate back to your Visual Studio 2010 Windows Azure Project where the dialog is still shown and paste in the Subscription ID as shown below.

Figure 1.11 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Management API Services Enabled

Once you have completed the steps above the Management API Deployment Services should be connected to your Windows Azure Cloud Services and show you a list of available deployment options.

Note: When using the API by default the Deployment Wizard will add a Label so that you are able to track your deployments.

Figure 1.12 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Deployment – Cancel

At this point you should be all set to use the Management API to publish your Cloud Application. One of the nice features with using the Management API is the ability to Cancel/Stop or a deployment process. While you can do this using the Azure Dashboard, I have found that using the API seems to be a bit more integrated or simply just work faster. Judge for yourself, but this is a very nice feature that is completely seamless.

Figure 1.13 – Publish to Azure using the Management API – Deployment Successful

At this point everything should be setup and enabled so that you can deployment you Cloud Application using the Windows Azure Management API.

Enjoy…..

How to Create a Windows Azure Storage Account and Custom Domain Name (register a CName record) in 3 Easy Steps

seaniannuzzi — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Depending on the type of application you are building it may be necessary for you to register a CName record with your Storage Account that you created. There are many reasons that you may want to perform this registration such as if you are building a Silverlight/Flash Application that requires that all of your resources are within the same domain.

Step 1: Create the Azure Storage Account

a) Login to your Windows Azure Account

b) Select your Azure Services

c) Click on Create New Service

d) Select Storage Account

Figure 1.0 - Create Storage Account

Figure 1.1 - Create Storage Account - Create the Service

Figure 1.2 - Create Storage Account - Name the Blob Storage Account

Figure 1.3 - Create Storage Account - Storage Account Summary

Step 2: Create the Custom Domain Name and Register the CName Record

Note:
For this step to work you must have access to register CName records with your domain. Usually this can be done by simply logging in to your provider and updating the list.

a) Click on the Manage Link to the Right of the Custom Domain

b) Enter your domain name and Click Generate Key

c) Click on the Manage Link Next to your Custom Domain and Click Validate

d) Follow the instructions on the page on what to enter in for the CName Records

Note:
If you receive a Dr. Watson Error then your CName Record mapping entered into your Domain Provider is likely to be incorrect or not working.

Figure 2.0 - Create the Custom Domain

Figure 2.1 - Create the Custom Domain - Domain Association

Figure 2.2 - Create the Custom Domain - Mapping

Figure 2.3 - Create the Custom Domain - Validate the Domain Association

Note:
If you receive a Dr. Watson Error then your CName Record mapping entered into your Domain Provider is likely to be incorrect or not working.

Figure 2.3.1 - Create the Custom Domain - Validate the Domain Association

Step 3: Verify Your Domain CName Record and Domain Name Association

At this point all that is left to do is to validate that your blob storage is properly associated to your CName records.

Figure 3.0 - Validate Domain CName Record and Domain Name Association

Hopefully this blog entry was helpful and useful to some as using this technique can come in handy when developing applications that integrate with Flash and Silverlight and need to access resources and/or assets that are not in the same domain.