Azure Front Door: Deploy custom domain

Article
03/27/2024

Important

Azure Front Door (classic) will be retired on March 31, 2027. To avoid any service disruption, it is important that you migrate your Azure Front Door (classic) profiles to Azure Front Door Standard or Premium tier by March 2027. For more information, see Azure Front Door (classic) retirement.

This Azure CLI script example deploys a custom domain name and TLS certificate on an Azure Front Door front-end. This script demonstrates fully automated provisioning of Azure Front Door with a custom domain name (hosted by Azure DNS) and TLS cert.

Important

This script requires that an Azure DNS public zone already exists for domain name. For a tutorial, see Host your domain in Azure DNS.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Sample script

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

The Azure Cloud Shell is a free interactive shell that you can use to run the steps in this article. It has common Azure tools preinstalled and configured to use with your account.

To open the Cloud Shell, just select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com.

When Cloud Shell opens, verify that Bash is selected for your environment. Subsequent sessions will use Azure CLI in a Bash environment, Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press Enter to run it.

Cloud Shell is automatically authenticated under the initial account signed-in with. Use the following script to sign in using a different subscription, replacing <Subscription ID> with your Azure Subscription ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

subscription="<subscriptionId>" # add subscription here

az account set -s $subscription # ...or use 'az login'

For more information, see set active subscription or log in interactively

Getting started

The script will:

Create a resource group
Create a storage account to host a SPA
Enable SPA hosting on storage account
Upload a "Hello world!" index.html file
Create a Front Door profile
Create a DNS alias for the Apex that resolves to the Front Door
Create a CNAME for the adverify hostname
Create a Front Door front-end endpoint for the custom domain
Add route from custom domain frontend to SPA origin
Add a routing rule to redirect HTTP -> HTTPS
Enable HTTPS with Front Door managed cert

Run the script

To run this script, copy the following code to a .sh file, change the hardcoded variables to your domain values, and then execute the following command to pass these variables into the script

AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME=www.contoso.com AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP=contoso-rg ./deploy-custom-apex-domain.sh

# Deploy a Custom Domain name and TLS certificate at the apex (root) on an Azure Front Door front-end.

# VARIABLES
# Change these hardcoded values if required

let "randomIdentifier=$RANDOM*$RANDOM"

# Use resource group environment variable if set
if [ "$RESOURCE_GROUP" == '' ];  
    then
        resourceGroup="msdocs-frontdoor-rg-$randomIdentifier"
    else
        resourceGroup="${RESOURCE_GROUP}"
fi

location='AustraliaEast'
tag='deploy-custom-domain'

storage="msdocsafd$randomIdentifier"

frontDoor="msdocs-frontdoor-$randomIdentifier"
frontDoorFrontEnd='www-contoso'

ttl=300

if [ "$AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME" == '' ]; 
   then 
        echo -e "\033[33mAZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME environment variable is not set. Front Door will be created but custom frontend will not be configured because custom domain name not provided. Try:\n\n    AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME=www.contoso.com AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP=contoso-dns-rg ./deploy-custom-apex-domain.sh\n\nSee Readme for details.\033[0m"
   else     
        if [ "$AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP" == '' ]; 
            then 
                # write error text
                echo -e "\033[31mAZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP environment variable is not set. Provide the resource group for the Azure DNS Zone. Try:\n\n    AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME=www.contoso.com AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP=contoso-dns-rg ./deploy-custom-apex-domain.sh\n\nSee Readme for details.\033[0m"
                
                # write stderr and exit
                >&2 echo "AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP environment variable is not set."
                exit 1
    fi
fi

# Resource group
az group create -n $resourceGroup -l $location --tags $tag


# STORAGE ACCOUNT
az storage account create -n $storage -g $resourceGroup -l $location --sku Standard_LRS --kind StorageV2

# Make Storage Account a SPA
az storage blob service-properties update --account-name $storage --static-website \
    --index-document 'index.html' --404-document 'index.html' 

# Upload index.html
az storage blob upload --account-name $storage -f ./index.html -c '$web' -n 'index.html' --content-type 'text/html'

# Get the URL to use as the origin URL on the Front Door backend
spaFQUrl=$( az storage account show -n $storage --query 'primaryEndpoints.web' -o tsv )

# Remove 'https://' and trailing '/'
spaUrl=${spaFQUrl/https:\/\//} ; spaUrl=${spaUrl/\//}


# FRONT DOOR
frontDoorId=$( az network front-door create -n $frontDoor -g $resourceGroup --tags $tag --accepted-protocols Http Https --backend-address $spaUrl --query 'id' -o tsv )


if [ "$AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME" != '' ]; 
   then 

    # AZURE DNS
    # Apex hostname on contoso.com
    # Create an Alias DNS recordset
    az network dns record-set a create -n "@" -g $AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP --zone-name $AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME --target-resource $frontDoorId --ttl $ttl

    # Create the domain verify CNAME
    az network dns record-set cname set-record -g $AZURE_DNS_ZONE_RESOURCE_GROUP --zone-name $AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME --record-set-name "afdverify" --cname "afdverify.$frontDoor.azurefd.net" --ttl $ttl


    # FRONT DOOR FRONT END
    # Create a frontend for the custom domain
    az network front-door frontend-endpoint create --front-door-name $frontDoor --host-name $AZURE_DNS_ZONE_NAME \
        --name $frontDoorFrontEnd -g $resourceGroup --session-affinity-enabled 'Disabled'

    # Update the default routing rule to include the new frontend
    az network front-door routing-rule update --front-door-name $frontDoor -n 'DefaultRoutingRule' -g $resourceGroup \
        --caching 'Enabled' --accepted-protocols 'Https' \
        --frontend-endpoints 'DefaultFrontendEndpoint' $frontDoorFrontEnd

    # Create http redirect to https routing rule
    az network front-door routing-rule create -f $frontDoor -g $resourceGroup -n 'httpRedirect' \
        --frontend-endpoints $frontDoorFrontEnd --accepted-protocols 'Http' --route-type 'Redirect' \
        --patterns '/*' --redirect-protocol 'HttpsOnly'

    # Update the default routing rule to include the new frontend
    az network front-door routing-rule update --front-door-name $frontDoor -n 'DefaultRoutingRule' -g $resourceGroup \
        --caching 'Enabled' --frontend-endpoints 'DefaultFrontendEndpoint' $frontDoorFrontEnd


    # Enable HTTPS. This command will return quickly but provisioning can take up to an hour to complete
    az network front-door frontend-endpoint enable-https \
        --front-door-name $frontDoor -n $frontDoorFrontEnd -g $resourceGroup
fi

Clean up resources

Use the following command to remove the resource group and all resources associated with it using the az group delete command - unless you have an ongoing need for these resources. Some of these resources may take a while to create, as well as to delete.

az group delete --name $resourceGroup

Sample reference

This script uses the following commands. Each command in the table links to command-specific documentation.

Command	Description
az group create	Creates a resource group in which all resources are stored..
az storage account create	Creates an Azure Storage account in the specified resource group.
az storage blob service-properties update	Update storage blob service properties.
az storage blob upload	Sets system properties on the blob.
az storage account show	Show storage account properties.
az network front-door create	Create a Front Door.
az network dns record-set	Manage DNS records and record sets.
az network front-door	Manage Front Doors.

Next steps

For more information on Azure CLI, see Azure CLI documentation.

Azure Front Door: Deploy custom domain

Prerequisites

Sample script

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

Getting started

Run the script

Clean up resources

Sample reference

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Azure Front Door: Deploy custom domain

Prerequisites

Sample script

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

Sign in to Azure

Getting started

Run the script

Clean up resources

Sample reference

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources