How to get the real IP address using CloudFlare and nginx on CentOS / Debian / Ubuntu
In this tutorial we will be configuring Cloudflare real ip under nginx server. As a result Cloudflare service will helps protect and speed up your web site project. In a standard shared hosting plan, visitors access the site directly.
Now we will start with the simplest configuration for enabling Cloudflare real ip.
Ensure you’ve nginx real ip module installed you can verify via this command:
nginx -V 2>&1 | grep -o with-http_realip_module
It will output:
with-http_realip_module
that means real ip module is already installed and if you get blank output then you need to install it, for CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu it is already installed by default.
To enable clouflare real ip config navigate to /etc/nginx/ and edit the nginx.conf file:
nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
and add this config under http { (before } ):
# Cloudflare Real IP Nginx set_real_ip_from 103.21.244.0/22; set_real_ip_from 103.22.200.0/22; set_real_ip_from 103.31.4.0/22; set_real_ip_from 104.16.0.0/12; set_real_ip_from 108.162.192.0/18; set_real_ip_from 131.0.72.0/22; set_real_ip_from 141.101.64.0/18; set_real_ip_from 162.158.0.0/15; set_real_ip_from 172.64.0.0/13; set_real_ip_from 173.245.48.0/20; set_real_ip_from 188.114.96.0/20; set_real_ip_from 190.93.240.0/20; set_real_ip_from 197.234.240.0/22; set_real_ip_from 198.41.128.0/17; set_real_ip_from 2400:cb00::/32; set_real_ip_from 2606:4700::/32; set_real_ip_from 2803:f800::/32; set_real_ip_from 2405:b500::/32; set_real_ip_from 2405:8100::/32; set_real_ip_from 2c0f:f248::/32; set_real_ip_from 2a06:98c0::/29; real_ip_header CF-Connecting-IP;
and restart nginx service:
systemctl restart nginx
example nginx config with cloudflare real ip config:
# For more information on configuration, see: # * Official English Documentation: http://nginx.org/en/docs/ # * Official Russian Documentation: http://nginx.org/ru/docs/ user nginx; worker_processes auto; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; pid /run/nginx.pid; # Load dynamic modules. See /usr/share/nginx/README.dynamic. include /usr/share/nginx/modules/*.conf; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; # don't send the nginx version number in error pages and Server header server_tokens off; sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; tcp_nodelay on; keepalive_timeout 65; types_hash_max_size 2048; include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; # Load modular configuration files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory. # See http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html#include # for more information. include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; server { listen 80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; server_name _; root /usr/share/nginx/html; # Load configuration files for the default server block. include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf; location / { } error_page 404 /404.html; location = /40x.html { } error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { } } # Cloudflare Real IP Nginx set_real_ip_from 103.21.244.0/22; set_real_ip_from 103.22.200.0/22; set_real_ip_from 103.31.4.0/22; set_real_ip_from 104.16.0.0/12; set_real_ip_from 108.162.192.0/18; set_real_ip_from 131.0.72.0/22; set_real_ip_from 141.101.64.0/18; set_real_ip_from 162.158.0.0/15; set_real_ip_from 172.64.0.0/13; set_real_ip_from 173.245.48.0/20; set_real_ip_from 188.114.96.0/20; set_real_ip_from 190.93.240.0/20; set_real_ip_from 197.234.240.0/22; set_real_ip_from 198.41.128.0/17; set_real_ip_from 2400:cb00::/32; set_real_ip_from 2606:4700::/32; set_real_ip_from 2803:f800::/32; set_real_ip_from 2405:b500::/32; set_real_ip_from 2405:8100::/32; set_real_ip_from 2c0f:f248::/32; set_real_ip_from 2a06:98c0::/29; real_ip_header CF-Connecting-IP; }