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

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.