Setting Up Cloudflare Tunnel for Your Website: A Beginner's Guide

This guide will walk you through the process of setting up a Cloudflare Tunnel to securely expose your website to the internet without opening ports on your firewall. This is perfect for beginners who want to host a website securely.

What is Cloudflare Tunnel?

Cloudflare Tunnel creates a secure connection between your local web server and Cloudflare's network, allowing visitors to access your site through Cloudflare without exposing your server's IP address.

Prerequisites

A Cloudflare account (free tier works fine)
A domain registered and using Cloudflare DNS
Docker and Docker Compose installed on your server

Step 1: Install cloudflared CLI

# For Debian/Ubuntu
curl -L --output cloudflared.deb https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cloudflared.deb

# For other systems, visit: https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/connections/connect-apps/install-and-setup/installation/

Step 2: Authenticate with Cloudflare

cloudflared login

This command will open a browser window. Log in to your Cloudflare account and authorize the cloudflared application to access your account. This allows the tunnel to connect to your Cloudflare account.

Step 3: Create a Tunnel

cloudflared tunnel create my-website-tunnel

This will create a new tunnel and store the credentials in ~/.cloudflared/[TUNNEL-ID].json. The tunnel ID is a unique identifier for your tunnel.

Step 4: Get Your Tunnel ID

cloudflared tunnel list

Note the tunnel ID - you'll need this for the next steps. It should look something like a UUID (e.g., "6ff42ae2-765d-4adf-8112-31c55c1551ef").

Step 5: Set Up DNS Records

# Replace with your actual domain and tunnel ID
cloudflared tunnel route dns your-tunnel-id yourdomain.com
cloudflared tunnel route dns your-tunnel-id www.yourdomain.com

This links your domain name to the tunnel, allowing traffic to flow to your local server.

Step 6: Configure Your Tunnel

Use the provided cloudflared-config.yml file and update the following:

tunnel: your-tunnel-id  # Replace with your actual tunnel ID
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/your-tunnel-id.json  # Update with your tunnel ID

Also update the hostname in the ingress section to match your domain:

ingress:
  - hostname: yourdomain.com  # Replace with your actual domain
    service: http://localhost:80

Step 7: Start the Tunnel Using Docker Compose

We've provided a Docker Compose file that sets up both your web server and the Cloudflare tunnel:

# Start the services
docker-compose -f docker-compose-with-cloudflare.yml up -d

# Check the status
docker-compose -f docker-compose-with-cloudflare.yml ps

This will start both your web server and the Cloudflare tunnel service connecting it to the internet.

Step 8: Monitor the Tunnel

# Check logs from your Docker setup
docker-compose -f docker-compose-with-cloudflare.yml logs -f cloudflared

# Check tunnel status using the CLI
cloudflared tunnel info your-tunnel-id

Troubleshooting

Connection issues: Check if your web server is running and accessible locally
DNS issues: Verify DNS records in your Cloudflare dashboard (orange cloud should be enabled)
Authentication issues: Ensure credentials file exists and contains valid information
"No such tunnel" error: Double-check your tunnel ID in all configurations

Security Benefits

Your server's IP address remains hidden from the public
All traffic is encrypted between visitors and your server
Protection from DDoS attacks via Cloudflare's network
No need to open ports in your firewall

Next Steps

Set up Cloudflare Access for additional authentication
Configure Cloudflare Workers for edge computing capabilities
Explore Cloudflare Pages for static site hosting

For more information, visit the Cloudflare Tunnel documentation.

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