3rd Party Proxy Services / Cloudflare

Overview

This article provides guidance on setting up a 3rd party proxy service, such as Cloudflare. These services act as an intermediary between your website’s users and your CIMcloud website. You will need to rely on the documentation and support provided to you by the proxy provider or 3rd party technical experts familiar with the proxy service you are using.

The following proxy services are successfully being used by CIMcloud customers:

• Cloudflare

Requirements & Limitations

You should ensure your proxy service can meet these requirements and that the limitations are acceptable for your situation.

1. X-Forwarded-For Header:
   • The proxy must send the original client IPv4 address in the X-Forwarded-For header.
2. IPv4 Only:
   • Only IPv4 addresses are supported.
   • Do not send IPv6 addresses in the X-Forwarded-For header, as they can cause unexpected issues.
   • You may either:
     • Disable IPv6 entirely, or
     • Use a Pseudo IPv4 solution to populate the header.
3. Custom Domain Limitation:
   • Only custom domain names (e.g., www.yourwebsite.com, shop.yourwebsite.com) can be proxied.
   • CIMcloud-provided domain names (ex:cimproduction.com) cannot be routed through a proxy.

Recommended Deployment & Testing Steps

The steps below are general guidelines to assist you to moving your CIMcloud website behind the proxy.

1. Confirm Requirements:
   • Ensure your configuration adheres to all requirements listed above in Requirements & Limitations.
2. Configure Proxy:
   • Set the proxy to forward requests to the CIMcloud IP address or CIMcloud hostname currently assigned in your custom domain’s DNS.
3. Test with hosts file or test subdomain:
   • Test using a hosts file locally on your computer
     • Update your hosts file so that your website name(s) resolve to the proxy IP address
   • Or, test using a test subdomain (e.g., proxytest.yourwebsite.com) to validate the proxy setup without impacting production.
     • You will need to either add the test subdomain as a new custom domain to your CIMcloud website (instructions are here), or have the proxy rewrite the HOST header (proxytest.yourwebsite.com –> shop.yourwebsite.com) when it forwards the request.
4. Go Live:
   • Lower TTL values for affected DNS records to allow quick rollback if issues arise.
   • Update your custom domain’s DNS entries to point to the proxy instead of directly to CIMcloud.
5. Rollback (if needed):
   • Revert DNS records to point directly to CIMcloud IP addresses if problems are encountered.