Windows Azure: How to create Hosted Service

In this article, I will show you how to create a Hosted Service in Windows Azure. A hosted service is used to host your Windows Azure application. It’s like setting up your hosting server, web server, networking, and domain name all in one place here.

1. Login to the Windows Azure Management Portal using your Live ID at http://windows.azure.com/
2. Once you’re logged in, click on the New Hosted Service at the top left of the page.
3. From the pop-up wizard, choose your subscription account from the dropdown.
4. In the Service Name, type a name for this service. It will help you identify the service when you have deployed multiple services.
5. In  Choose a URL for your service, type a subdomain name to create the URL at which your service will be available.
6. If you have created Affinity groups and you want to assign this service to a particular group, click the radio button next to the Affinity Group dropdown. Otherwise leave the default setting of No Affinity.
7. Choose a region for your service to be hosted at.
8. If you’re not deploying a package to the service at this time, choose Do not deploy. Then click OK.
   
   

   Deploying a service

1. From Step 8 above, choose either Deploy to stage environment or Deploy to production environment instead of choosing Do no deploy
2. Clear the Start after successful deployment if you doesn’t want to run it after a successful deployment.
3. Give a name for this deployment.
4. For package location, Browse locally or Browse storage for the service package (cspkg) file.
5. For configuration file, Browse locally or Browse storage for the Service configuration (cscfg) file.
6. Optionally, add a certificate if you already have one. Then click OK.