Cloudflare Load Balancer to a Custom ORDS with a Vanity URL for APEX

Matt MulvaneyMatt Mulvaney
2 min read

This uses the Cloudflare Load Balancer and points it at your Custom ORDS

This sets up basic Load Balancing at $5.00/month. You get 2 Endpoint Servers. The Billing says that you may cancel anytime.

By clicking “Purchase”, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Your subscription automatically renews and will be billed to your payment method on file, until canceled. You may cancel anytime in Billing Subscriptions, at least a day before each renewal date. For Services subject to usage based billing, you will be charged based on your use of the Services during the period specified by Cloudflare.

Ok, I’m going to pay $5 out of my own pocket just to write this blog. If this blog helped you, or you just want to support a good cause, please consider donating.

Prerequisites

  1. Follow this Guide to create a Dockerized Custom ORDS on ADB

  2. Go to your Cloudflare Dashboard > Zero Trust > Network Routes > Create Route

  3. Use these settings

    The CIDR should be the CIDR of your VCN. The Description and Tunnel should match the one you configured

  4. In Nginx Proxy Manager, ensure that, in additon to the domain you set up, also add cflb.example.com

Steps

  1. Go to your Cloudflare Dashboard > Domain > Traffic > Load Balancing > Enable Load Balancing

  2. Click Create Load Balancer

  3. Choose a Hostname, I’m going to use a cflb (Cloudflare Load Balancer) subdomain & choose Adaptive Routing and click Next

  4. I’m then going to select Create a Pool

  5. Add these details including the Header Value of your URL and use the Private Endpoint IP of your ORDS Container.

  6. Click Next Again

  7. Click Attach Monitors > Create a Monitor and complete the form as per the picture below and press Save

  8. Click Next

  9. In Traffic Steering choose Dynamic Steering if you have paid for it, otherwise the choice is yours. I’m going with Off for now since I only have a pool of 1

  10. For ECS (if your turned off the Proxied setting) use the following

    ECS choose the settings below

  11. Click Next

  12. Optional: We’ll can do Custom Redirect Rules in NGINX Proxy manager

    proxy_redirect https://cflb.example.com/ords/_/landing https://cflb.example.com/ords/r/workspace/landing/home;
    
  13. Click Save & Deploy

  14. Try it out

Unlike the OCI Load Balancer, the Cloudflare Load Balanacer Endpoints retain their URLs. Therefore the Cloudflare Load Balancer does not retain the original URL.

ENJOY!

What’s the picture? It’s Main St. in Ripley. Visit Yorkshire!

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Written by

Matt Mulvaney
Matt Mulvaney

With around 20 years on the job, Matt is one of the most experienced software developers at Pretius. He likes meeting new people, traveling to conferences, and working on different projects. He’s also a big sports fan (regularly watches Leeds United, Formula 1, and boxing), and not just as a spectator – he often starts his days on a mountain bike, to tune his mind.