Dynamic DNS

Time Required

5 Minutes

Difficulty

Easy

Required Knowledge

DNS, Cloudflare, Docker

If you have a dynamic DNS (your IP address changes), you can use a container to keep it in-sync with Cloudflare.

I would recommend against this unless there is a very specific use-case, eg a port forward for Plex or game servers. It is best practice to hide as much information as you can behind Cloudflare, as any attacks security risks can be mitigated by them.

If you are using NGIX proxy manager or something else similar, you should still be able to run those through a Zero Trust tunnel

Prerequisites

• Domain managed by Cloudflare

API key

First you will need to generate an API key with write access to your domain/s DNS.

1. Navigate to https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens

2. At API tokens, click on 'Create Token'

3. Select the 'Edit zone DNS' and set the below

   1. Give your token a name, eg "DDNS"

   2. Permissions:

      Zone	DNS	Edit

   3. Zone Resources:

      Include	All Zones (or select specific domains)

4. Click on 'Continue to Summary'

5. Click on 'Create token'

6. Save your API key to your password vault

DDNS Container

Deploy your Docker stack

You can use the below compose file,

https://github.com/trentnbauer/Homelab/blob/main/docker-compose/ddns.yml

services:
  ddns:
    image: favonia/cloudflare-ddns:1.15.1
    network_mode: host 
    restart: always
    user: "1000:1000"
    read_only: true 
    cap_drop: [all] 
    security_opt: [no-new-privileges:true] 
    environment:
      - CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=${CF_APIKEY}        # Your Cloudflare API token
      - DOMAINS=${DOMAINS}                       # Your domains (separated by commas)
      - PROXIED=${PROXIED-false}                 # Tell Cloudflare to cache webpages and hide your IP (optional)
      - DETECTION_TIMEOUT=15s                    # Resolves and potential latency issues
      - UPDATE_CRON=@every ${UPDATE_CRON:-5m}    # how often to update
      - DELETE_ON_STOP=${DELETE_ON_STOP:-false}  # delete the DDNS record when stopping the container
      - UPDATE_ON_START=${UPDATE_ON_START:-true} # update DDNS when the container starts
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "5m"
        max-file: "3"

.env

$CLOUDFLARE_APIKEY=
$DOMAINS=
$PROXIED=false