Windows Azure and ASP.NET : Creating a Windows Azure Service

First, you need to set up a Windows Azure service in the cloud so you can deploy a Windows Azure application later. Each Windows Azure service created in the cloud is mapped to a virtual machine; however, you have no control over the virtual machine itself—you can only deploy your applications and configure certain parameters. Follow these steps:

1. Open Internet Explorer, and go to http://windows.azure.com. You're prompted to sign in with your Windows Live account.

2. When you've logged in, you see the Windows Azure project you created . Click your project name; this gives you the list of Azure services you've created so far, as shown in Figure 1.

   NOTE

   This article assumes you've signed up for the Windows Azure service. Signing up for the service automatically creates a Windows Azure project in the cloud.

   Figure 1. Windows Azure services summary page

   

3. Click New Service to create your first Windows Azure service. Doing so brings up a page asking which kind of service you want to create:

4. Storage Account. Lets you store large amounts of data

5. Hosted Services. Lets you run services and web applications

6. Click Hosted Services. Another page opens, and you're prompted to enter a Service Label and a Service Description (see Figure 2). The Service Label must be unique across all existing services in the cloud. If the name you enter is already registered, a message says so. Click Next.

   Figure 2. Creating a new Azure service

   

7. The configuration screen in Figure 3 allows you to select a unique service name to use for your URL. This URL is available on the public Internet and as such must be globally unique. You also need to select a Service Affinity option. Figure 9-3 shows that you're creating a new service to be made available through http://AzureExample.cloudapp.net and hosted in an existing affinity group that you created when creating your SQL Azure database. The affinity group is called USSouthGroup, and it's located in South Central US.

   Figure 3. Windows Azure service configuration page

   

Creating an affinity group is very important for two reasons:

• Price. When a Windows Azure service connects to a SQL Azure database located in the same region, there are no additional charges when transferring data between the service and the database.

• Failover. If something happens and either the Windows Azure service or the SQL Azure database must failover to another region, all the services in the same affinity group are moved together if possible, keeping the performance and cost structure of the service consistent.

1. To make sure your service is created successfully, click Check Availability in the configuration window shown in Figure 3. A message is returned indicating whether the check was successful. If is the service name is available, click Create. When the service is created, you see a page similar to the one shown in Figure 4.

   Figure 4. Windows Azure service management page

   

NOTE

As long as no code is deployed on this service, you aren't charged. However, as soon as you deploy something, the clock starts ticking from a billing standpoint.