How to Configure CDN and Security Settings with Cloudflare on a VPS

How to Configure CDN and Security Settings with Cloudflare on VPS?

Today, the speed, security, and availability of websites are critical for user experience and search engine rankings. If you are hosting your website using a VPS (Virtual Private Server), leveraging Cloudflare's CDN (Content Delivery Network) and security features is an effective way to improve your site's performance and protect it against cyber threats. In this article, we will explain step by step how to install and optimize Cloudflare on your VPS.

What is Cloudflare and Why Should You Use It?

Cloudflare is a platform that offers a range of services for websites, including CDN, DDoS protection, firewall, and DNS management. Basically, it acts as a proxy server in front of your site, caching your content on servers (CDN) in different parts of the world and serving it to users from the nearest server. This significantly increases your site's loading speed and reduces your bandwidth costs.

The main advantages of using Cloudflare are:

Speed and Performance: Thanks to CDN, your site's content is served from servers closest to users' geographic locations, which shortens page loading times.
Security: Cloudflare provides advanced protection against DDoS attacks and common web attacks such as SQL injection and XSS.
Reliability: Cloudflare's extensive server network increases your site's uptime and strengthens its resilience against sudden traffic spikes.
SEO Improvement: Faster loading sites tend to rank higher in search engines.
Free Plan: Cloudflare offers a free plan that includes basic CDN and security features, making it ideal for small and medium-sized websites.

Step-by-Step Cloudflare Setup

1. Creating a Cloudflare Account and Adding a Domain Name

The first step is to create an account by going to Cloudflare's website (cloudflare.com). You can start with a free plan and upgrade later according to your needs. After creating an account, you will need to add your domain name to Cloudflare. Cloudflare will automatically scan your domain name's DNS records and show you your existing DNS records. Carefully review these records and make sure they are correct.

2. Redirecting DNS Records to Cloudflare

After adding your domain name to Cloudflare, Cloudflare will tell you that you need to change your domain name's nameservers. Nameservers are the information that indicates where to find your domain name's DNS records. You will need to change the nameservers from the control panel where you purchased your domain name (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) to the nameservers provided by Cloudflare. These changes may take 24-48 hours to take effect.

Example:

Cloudflare may give you the following nameservers:

ella.ns.cloudflare.com
john.ns.cloudflare.com

You need to enter these nameservers in the DNS settings of your domain name registrar.

3. Configuring Cloudflare Settings

After the nameserver changes take effect, you can return to the Cloudflare control panel and start configuring your site's settings. Here are some important settings to pay attention to:

a. SSL/TLS Encryption

Cloudflare offers free SSL/TLS certificates to securely serve your website over HTTPS. It is recommended to select "Full" or "Full (Strict)" mode by going to the "SSL/TLS" section. "Full" mode ensures that the connection between Cloudflare and your server is encrypted. "Full (Strict)" mode requires a valid SSL certificate on your server.

b. Firewall

Cloudflare's firewall protects your site from malicious traffic. You can adjust the security level from the "Firewall" tab in the "Security" section. Generally, the "Medium" level is suitable for most websites. You can also create custom rules to block specific IP addresses or country traffic.

c. Caching

Cloudflare's caching feature reduces server load and increases page loading speed by caching your site's static content (images, CSS files, JavaScript files, etc.). It is recommended to leave the "Caching Level" setting in the "Caching" section as "Standard". You can also create custom rules to exclude specific file types or URLs from the cache.

d. Speed

In the "Speed" section, there are various optimization options to improve your site's performance. You can automatically minify your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files with the "Auto Minify" option. With the "Brotli" compression feature, you can compress your site's content more efficiently and increase the transfer speed.

4. Additional Security Settings and Tips

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Increase the security of your account by enabling two-factor authentication for your Cloudflare account.
Rate Limiting: Provide additional protection against DDoS attacks by limiting the number of requests from a specific IP address within a certain period.
Bot Fight Mode: Enable Bot Fight Mode to block malicious bot traffic.
Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare's WAF protects your site against common web attacks. Review the WAF rules and customize them according to your needs.

Example: Defining Cloudflare IP Addresses as Trusted with .htaccess

In some cases, your web server (e.g., Apache) may need to recognize Cloudflare's IP addresses as trusted. This is important, for example, when you want to see the real visitor IP addresses in your server's logs. To do this, you can add the following code to your .htaccess file:

Note: This code example is for Apache servers. If you are using Nginx, you will need to make similar changes in your configuration files.

.htaccess Example:


# Define Cloudflare IP Addresses as Trusted
SetEnvIf CF-IPCountry ^..$ country=$1

# Use Real IP Address
SetEnvIf X-Forwarded-For "^([0-9.]+).*$" real_ip=$1

# Set Log Format
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined

This code determines the real visitor IP address by using the IP address in the X-Forwarded-For header sent by Cloudflare.

Conclusion and Summary

Cloudflare is a powerful tool that can significantly improve the speed, security, and reliability of your website hosted on your VPS. In this article, we explained step by step how to install Cloudflare, how to manage your DNS records, and how to configure basic security and performance settings. Remember, it is important to explore all the features Cloudflare offers and customize them according to your site's specific needs. By configuring Cloudflare correctly, you can improve your site's user experience, increase SEO performance, and better protect against cyber threats.

In summary, with Cloudflare you can:

Optimize your site's loading speed with CDN.
Provide protection against DDoS attacks and other cyber threats with a firewall.
Provide a secure connection with a free SSL certificate.
Improve your SEO performance.
Reduce your bandwidth costs.