Installing Cloudflared on DigitalOcean Ubuntu

Cloudflared is a tunneling daemon that allows you to securely connect your server to Cloudflare's network without exposing your origin server to the internet. This guide will walk you through the steps to install Cloudflared on an Ubuntu server hosted on DigitalOcean.

Prerequisites

An Ubuntu server on DigitalOcean
SSH access to the server
Basic knowledge of command line operations

Step 1: Update Your System

Start by updating your package lists and upgrading existing packages to ensure everything is up to date.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Required Packages

Install the necessary packages to add the Cloudflare repository.

sudo apt install curl lsb-release

Step 3: Add the Cloudflare GPG Key and Repository

Add the Cloudflare GPG key and repository to your system.

curl -L https://pkg.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-main.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloudflare-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

Since the noble release does not have a repository, you can use the focal release which is often supported.

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloudflare-archive-keyring.gpg] https://pkg.cloudflare.com/cloudflared focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflared.list

Step 4: Update Package List Again

Update the package list to include the new Cloudflare repository.

sudo apt update

Step 5: Install Cloudflared

Install the Cloudflared package.

sudo apt install cloudflared

Alternative Method: Using Snap

If you prefer using Snap to manage your packages, you can install Cloudflared via Snap. Ensure Snap is installed and then install Cloudflared.

Ensure Snap is installed:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install core

Install Cloudflared via Snap:
```
sudo snap install jnsgruk-cloudflared
```

Step 6: Ensure Cloudflared is in Your PATH

If the cloudflared command is not found, add Snap's binary path to your system's PATH.

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/snap/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 7: Verify Installation

Verify that Cloudflared is correctly installed by checking its version.

which cloudflared
cloudflared --version

If everything is set up correctly, you should see the path to the cloudflared binary and its version information.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can install Cloudflared on your DigitalOcean Ubuntu server, allowing you to securely connect your server to Cloudflare's network. This setup helps enhance your server's security by keeping it hidden from the public internet.

For more detailed information and troubleshooting, you can refer to the official Cloudflare documentation.

References: