Question

How to connect DigitalOcean app platform with Cloudflare?

Hello! I’m totaly new to hosting. I bought a domain name on CloudFlare and want to connect it with my DigitalOcean app platform. How I can do it? I spend 3 days googling here and there but didn’t manage to find a guide. Please help me.

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  • Add Your Domain in Cloudflare: In Cloudflare, add your domain and go through the DNS verification process.
  • Update Nameservers: Update your domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare’s nameservers, as instructed in the setup.
  • Set Up DNS Records: In Cloudflare’s DNS settings, create an A or CNAME record pointing to your DigitalOcean App Platform IP or domain. Make sure ‘Proxy status’ is set to ‘Proxied’ if you want Cloudflare to handle traffic and security.
  • SSL Configuration: Check your SSL/TLS settings in Cloudflare (often set to ‘Full’ for compatibility). DigitalOcean handles SSL by default, so your site will have end-to-end encryption.

Those are great directions - one note - you should keep Cloudflare proxy turned OFF during the connection process. Once the domain is listed as ‘active’, then you can turn on Cloudflare proxy.

However, if you rebuild/redeploy your app after enabling Cloudflare proxy, then DigitalOcean will re-check your CNAME and find that it doesn’t match, and will list the domain as ‘configuring’, and then send you an email 12-24 hours later saying that the domain couldn’t be connected.

Luckily, the domain will remain connected, but you won’t be able to get it to switch back to ‘active’ unless you disable Proxy, rebuild the app, and then re-enable the Cloudflare proxy.

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