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Step 4: DNS Setup

This guide covers configuring Cloudflare DNS credentials for automatic DNS record creation.

Overview​

The deployment uses External DNS with Cloudflare to automatically create DNS records for all Fabric nodes and FireFly services.

Generate Cloudflare API Token​

  1. Log in to your Cloudflare Dashboard
  2. Navigate to My Profile → API Tokens
  3. Click Create Token
  4. Use the Edit zone DNS template or create a custom token with the following permissions:
    • Zone → Zone → Read
    • Zone → DNS → Edit
  5. Set the Zone Resources to include your domain
  6. Create the token and copy it securely
Required Permissions

The Cloudflare API token must have:

  • Zone.Zone:Read - To read zone information
  • Zone.DNS:Edit - To create, read, and delete DNS records

The deployment will fail without these permissions.

How DNS Setup Works​

During deployment, the run.sh script calls setup-external-dns.sh, which will:

  1. Detect that Cloudflare is configured in network.yaml
  2. Check if credentials already exist in Kubernetes
  3. Prompt you for your Cloudflare API token if not found
  4. Create a Kubernetes secret with your credentials
  5. Deploy External DNS to automatically manage DNS records

Pre-configure Credentials (Optional)​

You can set up credentials in advance by running:

export CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN="your-token-here"
cd ~/bevel-fixes
./setup-external-dns.sh

This will create the Kubernetes secret without waiting for the deployment script to prompt you.

DNS Records Created​

External DNS will automatically create records for:

  • Orderer nodes: orderer1.pm3org-net.YOUR_DOMAIN, etc.
  • Peer nodes: peer0.transporter1-net.YOUR_DOMAIN, etc.
  • CA services: ca.pm3org-net.YOUR_DOMAIN, etc.
  • FireFly UIs: firefly.pm3org-net.YOUR_DOMAIN/ui, etc.

All records will point to your server's public IP address.

Verification​

After credentials are configured, you can verify the External DNS pod:

# Check External DNS pod
kubectl get pods -n kube-system -l app=external-dns

# Watch External DNS logs
kubectl logs -n kube-system -l app=external-dns -f

Next Steps​

Once DNS credentials are prepared, proceed to Deployment to execute the deployment scripts.