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    CDN:CDN beginner's guide

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    CDN:CDN beginner's guide

    Last Updated:Sep 21, 2026

    This guide explains the Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) workflow, from service activation to content acceleration, to help you quickly get started with CDN.

    Core concepts

    The following table explains the basic concepts involved in CDN to help you understand and use CDN more accurately. For more information about the concepts of CDN, see Basic concepts of CDN.

    Concept

    Description

    Origin server

    The server that hosts your original website files, such as images, CSS, and JS files. CDN retrieves content from the origin server and delivers it to users.

    Accelerated domain name

    The domain name you want to accelerate with CDN. This is the domain name that visitors for your website enter in their browsers, such as www.example.com.

    CNAME record

    A type of DNS record. You must change the DNS record for your accelerated domain name from an A or AAAA record to a CNAME record and point it to a dedicated domain name from the CDN service. This directs user requests to the CDN network.

    Point of presence (POP)

    Severs deployed by CDN in a global network of locations close to your users. User requests are intelligently routed to the nearest POP, which responds cached content to users to accelerate content delivery.

    Origin fetch

    The process in which a POP requests the latest file from the origin server. This happens when the requested file is not cached on the POP or the cache has expired.

    Cache hit ratio

    The percentage of total requests that are served directly from a CDN POP's cache. A higher cache hit ratio indicates better acceleration performance, fewer origin fetches, and reduced load on your origin server.

    Billing

    • Alibaba Cloud CDN billing includes basic services (fees for CDN acceleration) and value-added services (fees for the number of HTTPS requests, real-time log entries, and other items). For more information, see Alibaba Cloud CDN pricing.

    • basic services are billed automatically when you use Alibaba Cloud CDN. value-added services are disabled by default and are billed only after you manually enable them.

    • Both basic services and value-added services use a pay-as-you-go billing method by default.

    • For both basic services and value-added services, Alibaba Cloud CDN also offers resource plans with discounts to standard pricing. For more information, see Select a resource plan.

    Workflow

    Phase 1: Preparation

    Before you start, ensure you have the following resources:

    • A domain name: You must have access to the domain name and the permission to modify its DNS records.

    • A publicly accessible origin server: This can be an IP address, another domain name, or the endpoint of an Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket.

    Note

    In accordance with Chinese laws and the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), websites, apps, and other services that resolve to servers in the Chinese mainland must obtain an ICP filing to confirm their legitimacy before providing publicly accessible services.

    Phase 2: Activate and configure CDN

    1. Activate CDN.

    2. Add a domain name:

      1. Select an acceleration region based on the location of your website's users.

        User location

        Acceleration effect

        Acceleration region

        Chinese mainland

        All user requests are routed to POPs in the Chinese mainland. Traffic from outside the Chinese mainland, including Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), and Taiwan (China), is routed to CDN POPs of China Telecom in East China.

        Chinese Mainland

        Regions outside the Chinese mainland, including Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), and Taiwan (China)

        All user requests are routed to CDN POPs outside the Chinese mainland. Users from the Chinese mainland are routed to CDN POPs in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong (China).

        Global (Excluding the Chinese Mainland)

        Global

        All user requests are routed to the nearest optimal POP.

        Global

      2. If you are adding your domain name to the CDN console for the first time, you must Verify domain ownership through its DNS records. After a domain is verified, you do not need to verify it or its subdomains again.

      3. Configure your origin server. This tells Alibaba Cloud CDN where to fetch resources that are not in the cache.

    3. Configure HTTPS: If your application supports HTTPS or you want your domain name to support HTTPS, configure an HTTPS certificate. Otherwise, your domain will not be accessible via HTTPS.

      Skip this step if your domain name does not support HTTPS and you do not plan to enable it.

    4. Configure CDN security and performance optimization:

      • Malicious attacks or traffic theft can cause sudden spikes in bandwidth usage or data transfers, leading to high costs. We strongly recommend that you configure appropriate security measures in advance to avoid such risks.

      • Configure features such as cache expiration time and page optimization to improve the CDN cache hit ratio and access performance, and reduce origin-fetch traffic.

    Phase 3: Configure a CNAME record and switch traffic

    1. Test domain name accessibility: After adding your domain, test it locally to ensure it is accessible. Once you verify that the domain works as expected, you can point its DNS record to the CNAME. This process ensures a smooth transition without affecting your existing services.

    2. Configure a CNAME record: After you add a domain name, Alibaba Cloud CDN assigns a corresponding CNAME to it. Point the DNS record of your accelerated domain name to the assigned CNAME at your DNS provider to activate the CDN service.

    Most popular features

    • Origin configuration: CDN offers customizable origin configurations such as specifying the origin-fetch protocol, origin addresses, and modifying origin-fetch requests.

    • Resource monitoring: You can view core metrics for your accelerated domain names, such as traffic, bandwidth, number of requests, origin-fetch traffic/bandwidth, and cache hit ratio, to understand the acceleration performance.

    • Logs and reports: CDN provides offline logs, real-time logs, and operational reports to help you identify issues and improve your CDN service quality.

    • Refresh and prefetch: Applicable to origin resource updates and publishing, non-compliant resource cleanup, and domain name configuration changes. These features also help reduce the load on your origin server.

    FAQ

    Is it recommended to use a root domain (such as example.com) for acceleration?

    No, it is not recommended. DNS specifications require that a CNAME record for a root domain (@ record) cannot coexist with other records (such as MX mail records). If the root domain needs to send and receive emails, configuring a CNAME record will interrupt email services. Using an independent second-level domain (such as www.example.com or static.example.com) is a safer and more flexible approach.

    How can I reduce CDN costs?

    • Purchase resource plans: For businesses with stable usage, purchasing traffic or HTTPS request resource plans is usually more cost-effective than pay-as-you-go.

    • Optimize cache rules: Improving the cache hit ratio is the most effective way to reduce costs. Extend the cache duration of static resources as much as possible.

    • Enable bandwidth cap: As a final cost protection measure, prevent unexpected traffic from exceeding your budget.

    Next steps and best practices

    For more features and best practices, see CDN overview page and Accelerate OSS resources with CDN.