Backup domain name: cloudflare killed my forum

Installation
1

OK. I have cloudflare as a proxy in front of discourse. Cloudflare is currently down and the problem I have is I cannot even log onto cloudflare to re-configure the DNS to bypass their servers.

So currently, I cannot access discourse via its normal domain name.

I was wondering if it is possible to configure a backup domain name which can be used which I would then bypass cloudflare and have discourse respond with this alternative name i.e. not re-write to default.

e.g. if my normal forum is myforum.com, then i setup backup.myforum.com as an alternative.

2

I have no idea why, but when I woke up, all websites with CF protection shields were inaccessible.

3

AFAIK, You have to wait for Cloudflare to come back online.

1 Like
4

If you have a Cloudflare API token available and are not afraid of a command line, you can turn off the proxy like this:

First grab the zone ID via:

curl -X GET "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" | jq -r '.result[] | "\(.id) \(.name)"'

And a list of DNS records using:

curl -X GET "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Each DNS record will have an ID associated. Finally patch the relevant records:

curl -X PATCH "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records/$RECORD_ID" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"proxied":false}'

3 Likes
5

Hi Richard.

Thanks. Yes, the API could be a solution (assuming it is still working) for changing the DNS.

My other question was on the discourse side: is it possible to run a forum that presents multiple different domain names?

6

It is. No need to change the DNS, you just need to turn off the proxy.

Sure. How are people going to know where to go?

7

Unfortunately, it was more involved as the site was configured to use Cloudflare’s internal SSL certficates and so new SSL certs had to be set up etc. etc.

Ironic that over-reliance on cloudflare, which is intended to protect websites and keep them up is also a weakness that can cause them to be down.

Sure. How are people going to know where to go?

how do you give the forum 2 different domain names? e.g. a.forum.com and b.forum.com without requests to b.forum.com being re-written to a.forum.com?

8

See Set up Let’s Encrypt with multiple domains / redirects - #172 by featheredtoast

you might have to tweak Nginx to avoid the redirect, I don’t know the details of the Docker setup.