Using Custom Domain name with Windows Azure Storage instead of windows_stroage_name.blob.core.windows.net

When using Windows Azure storage it is possible that you would like to refer Windows Azure Storage using a custom domain name instead of the given Windows Azure Storage URL.

For example:

Storage Name: avkashchauhan.blob.core.windows.net

Custom Domain Name: storage.avkashchauhan.com

Here my objective is to use https://storage.avkashchauhan.com instead of https://avkashchauhan.blob.core.windows.net. And to do it I must have register my custom domain (avkashchauhan.com) at any 3rd party domain register service and then I can start setting custom domain from Windows Azure Management Portal using the steps below:

Step 1: Login to my Windows Azure account as below and access the Storage Account which I want to use with custom domain:

Step 2: After I selected the "Add Domain" I see the following dialog which asked me the add the "custom domain name" for my "avkashchauhan.blob.core.windows.net" :

Step 3: After I entered storage.avkashchauhan.com above, I selected "Configure". Now I see another dialog which provided me a CNAME record and suggested me to setup this CNAME record in my DNS registrar entry where my domain avkashchauhan.com is hosted as below:

Step 4: My domain name avkashchauhan.com is hosted at GoDaddy.com so I logged into my GoDaddy account and Added the following CNAME entry in the DNS registrar CNAME (Alias) Settings:

Step 5: The above verify step is to just confirm that in fact you are the owner of the host domain and you have authority to use the name space. However ONE very important thing to remember is that the above entry is not enough for setting my storage.avkashchauhan.com instead I also need to add the following entry also as below:

- storage -> avkashchauhan.blob.core.windows.net

Step 6: Once you added the above two entries the DNS server may take about 1 hours to get it set and after that you can use Azure storage using a custom domain. If you are using any other domain registrar then GoDaddy you need to be sure to add two CNAME entries as described above properly.