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Supercharging Your Website with CloudFlare on cPanel

Introduction

CloudFlare has just made using the cPanel to manage performance and security features a whole lot easier. This guide should serve as a walkthrough for the functionality and usability of the CloudFlare plugin. For more detailed information on CloudFlare features, visit our Knowledge Base at https://support.cloudflare.com .

CloudFlare in cPanel

Figure 1: The CloudFlare section within cPanel

CloudFlare section within cPanel If your hosting provider is using the newest plugin for cPanel, CloudFlare options are categorized into six sections: CloudFlare Overview, CloudFlare Status, CloudFlare Security, CloudFlare Performance, CloudFlare Analytics and CloudFlare Support. (Older cPanel plugin versions will show

1 888 99 FLARE | [email protected] | cloudflare.com/partners 2/2015

https://support.cloudflare.com/

CloudFlare as a single icon).

Any of these CloudFlare icons can be selected to bring you to the relevant section. These sections will be explained in further detail below.

CloudFlare Overview section

Figure 2: The CloudFlare Overview section of the cPanel plugin

CloudFlare navigation buttons At the top of the CloudFlare Overview section (Figure 2), as with the other sections, are the CloudFlare cPanel navigation icons. You may click any of the six icons to quickly move to a different area.

Manage button The CloudFlare Account Settings section will give information regarding which domains are routed through CloudFlare. A detailed “Website Records” area will expand into view when the “Manage” button is activated.

Icon This icon indicates that the domain is actively being routed through CloudFlare. The icon can

be clicked to disable CloudFlare, which results in a grey cloud icon ( ). Subdomains can be activated or deactivated for CloudFlare individually within the “Website Records” area by clicking the appropriate cloud icon.

Run on CloudFlare button If the subdomain is not configured for CloudFlare, a “Run on CloudFlare” button will show instead of the cloud icon. Clicking this button will navigate the user to the cPanel domain


management section. Website A records are not available for use on cPanel, as only CNAME records are usable. In this example (Figure 2), notice that the CNAME record is ‘www.happypostcards.org’ and is being re-routed through CloudFlare via ‘www.happypostcards.org.cdn.cloudfare.net’. The two remaining records are A records and will need to be re-assigned through the cPanel interface before routed through CloudFlare.

CloudFlare Status section

Figure 3: The CloudFlare Status section

CloudFlare status information This area allows you to view the status of the CloudFlare network at any given time. Data for this section is derived from formatted information sourced from www.cloudflarestatus.com. It may contain information that affects your website’s performance or security. CloudFlare is an anycast network so even if a data center near your visitor is undergoing maintenance your website will be served by adjacent data centers with no downtime.

CloudFlare geographic status CloudFlare data centers are grouped by geographic region. Clicking on any region will expand the white status boxes and provide more information for a specific data center within.


http://www.happypostcards.org/

http://www.happypostcards.org/

http://www.happypostcards.org.cdn.cloudfare.net/

http://www.cloudflarestatus.com/

CloudFlare Security section

Figure 4: The CloudFlare Security section

Settings button Similar to other sections, this button will reveal more options for each particular domain. The cloud icon is informational only - taking a website offline from CloudFlare can only be accomplished from the CloudFlare Overview section.

Account Type The Account Type field will depend on your hosting provider’s relationship with CloudFlare. If you interested in an advanced (paid) version of CloudFlare, changing the Account Type drop down menu will redirect you to www.cloudflare.com. After logging in with your CloudFlare account, you have the option of purchasing a more advanced monthly plan.

Security setting The options of “High”, “Medium”, “Low”, “Essentially Off”, and “I’m Under Attack!” are available. CloudFlare uses a combination of external and internal threat assessments to rank IP addresses for risk, and screens these visitors based upon the security level chosen here. Because of the ability to adapt to current web threats and continuously update, it is difficult to define these parameters in absolute terms. The default of “Medium” is recommended for most situations. If your website is under attack or is at risk for malicious threats, “I’m Under Attack!” mode will adjust the security settings to screen every site visitor regardless of their originating IP Address pre-determined ranking. More information about these settings is available at www.cloudflare.com.


http://www.cloudflare.com/


CloudFlare Performance section

Figure 5: The CloudFlare Performance section

Settings button Similar to other sections, this button will reveal more options for each particular domain. The cloud icon is informational only - taking a website offline from CloudFlare can only be accomplished from the CloudFlare Overview section.

Account type This area will depend on your hosting provider’s relationship with CloudFlare. If you interested in an advanced (paid) version of CloudFlare, changing the Account Type drop down menu will redirect you to www.cloudflare.com. After logging in with your CloudFlare account, you have the option of purchasing a more advanced monthly plan.

Development Mode Development Mode allows you to temporarily suspend CloudFlare's edge caching and minification features. This functionality is useful if you are making changes to cacheable content (like images, css, or JavaScript) and would like to see those changes right away (i.e., catalog updates or one-day sales).



Cache Purge Clicking the “Purge” button will refresh your cached static web assets across the CloudFlare network, erasing current cached content. This maybe helpful when releasing a new version of a website, removing specific pages for eCommerce, or similar.

Always Online This option will display the last cached image to site visitors if your host server is unavailable. The mode can be be toggled ‘off’ or ‘on’. The amount of website pages available will depend on how much content is currently cached on CloudFlare.

Automatic IPv6 Conversion of newer IPv6 addresses into IPv4 format is sometimes needed for older websites on incompatible host servers. This setting will convert the newer addressed to a readable format.

Caching Level The optional caching levels adjust the amount and type of content cached in CloudFlare. “Normal” caches most static resources (for example: css, images, JavaScript, etc.) while “Aggressive” includes query strings, etc.

Railgun (For customers using CloudFlare Optimized Partners Only) Dynamic content acceleration on the CloudFlare network is possible through the Railgun protocol. If your host supports Railgun, selection of the Railgun server to be used can be selected in the dropdown menu. The option of its usage is controlled through the “on” or “off” toggle, as well. More information on Railgun can be found at www.cloudflare.com/railgun

CloudFlare Analytics section

Figure 6: The CloudFlare Analytics section


http://www.cloudflare.com/railgun

Statistics button Clicking this button will expand the Basic Statistic window to view data from the domain chosen, i.e. “happypostcards.org” domain in the example (Figure 6).

Basic Statistics This field displays visitor traffic information for the last week. The data is acquired every 24 hours but if on an advanced CloudFlare plan, these data points are collected every 15 minutes.

Requests Saved CloudFlare saves your host server from fulfilling many requests as a visitor is instead served from web content cached on the CloudFlare edge server. This graph demonstrates these savings.

See more statistics button More data may be available that cannot be formatted for the cPanel interface. Clicking this button will direct your browser to www.cloudflare.com where the website interface can provide more statistical detail.

CloudFlare Support section

Figure 7: The CloudFlare Support section

This section provides contact information and hyperlinks to popular self-help areas of CloudFlare, including the CloudFlare Knowledge Base, CloudFlare Blog, and CloudFlare support areas.

Need more?

Manage your CloudFlare account through www.cloudflare.com!

For more advanced features like individual Page Rules for specific web content or Web Access Firewall options for the advanced plans. Log in to your CloudFlare account at www.cloudflare.com. On your first visit you will need to create an account password by using the ‘reset password’ function but this will open up many more options to manage (if you want them)!




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