Azure Web Roles custom domain names with A-Record

Question

I am in the process of setting up a web role with a custom domain name. I would like to support naked domain names, so I am interested in using A-Record.

Is there any documentation on setting up an A-Record for a Web Role. I do see documentation pertaining to Azure Web Sites but they don't apply to Web Roles. Do I setup this feature on Azure or is it done with my DNS provider?

Also, based on my research I understood that the A-record needs to be setup between by custom domain name and the Virtual IP Address (VIP) of my web role. I am not planning on doing any deployments that would delete my web role. In this case it is safe to set up the A-Record against the VIP.

Is the VIP unique for the cloud service or is it shared across multiple cloud services?

Answer 1

Take a look at the tutorial on windowsazure.com: Configuring a custom domain name for a Windows Azure cloud service or storage account. The tutorial explains that the lifetime of an IP address is related to the deployment:

Note, however, because the lifetime of the IP address is associated with a deployment, it is important not to delete your deployment if you need the IP address to persist. Conveniently, the IP address of a given deployment slot (production or staging) is persisted when using the two upgrade mechanisms in Windows Azure: VIP swaps and in-place upgrades.

Simply put, don't delete the deployment to keep the same IP address.

Answer 2

I have been struggling with the same requirement and a derth of information. In the end I pointed my A_Record to the VIP of the Instance and all seems well.