Deploying Alibaba Cloud WAF for a website indicates updating the DNS records (CNAME or A type) after the website configuration is created, to redirect web requests to WAF for inspection.

You can use a CNAME record or A record to redirect web traffic. We recommend that you use CNAME. Using CNAME supports node switch or even redirecting traffic back to source in case of node failure or machine failure, which improves your business’s availability and failure recovery capacity.

The following content applies to deploying Alibaba Cloud WAF exclusively for the website, that is, the website does not use CDN, DDoS protection, and other proxy services. For other scenarios, see the following documents:

(Recommended) Edit CNAME record to deploy WAF

Prerequisites
  • Website configuration is successfully created. For more information, see Website configuration.
  • Obtain the WAF CNAME address.
    1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud WAF console.
    2. On the top of the page, select the region: Mainland China, International.
    3. On the Management > Website Configuration page, move the pointer onto the domain name you want to operate. You will see the Copy CName button.

    4. Click Copy CName to copy the WAF CNAME address to the Clipboard.
      Note If you want to update A record to redirect web traffic to WAF, you can ping this CNAME address to obtain the corresponding WAF IP address. For more information, see WAF deployment guide. In general, the WAF IP address seldom changes.
  • You have permissions to update the domain’s DNS settings in its DNS host’s system.
  • (Optional) Whitelist Alibaba Cloud WAF IP addresses. If your origin web server has enabled non-Alibaba Cloud security software (such as Fortinet FortiGate), you must whitelist WAF IP addresses in the software to prevent legitimate traffic returned by WAF from being blocked. For more information, see Whitelist Alibaba Cloud WAF IP addresses.
  • (Optional) Perform redirect check with a local computer. Perform a redirect check to guarantee that all configuration is correct, before you change the DNS settings. This helps avoid business interruption due to incorrect configuration. For more information, see Perform redirect check with a local computer.

Procedure

The following steps explain how to update the CNAME record in Alibaba Cloud DNS. If your domain is hosted in Alibaba Cloud DNS, follow these steps. Otherwise, you must log on to your DNS host’s system to do the modification.

  1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.
  2. Select the domain to be operated and click Configure.

  3. Select the Host (hostname) to be operated and click Edit.
    Take abc.com as an example. You can select hostname as follows:
    • www: matches the subdomain starting with www, in this case www.abc.com.
    • @: matches the root domain, in this case abc.com.
    • *: matches a wildcard domain name that includes both the root domain and all subdomains, in this case blog.abc.com, www.abc.com, abc.com, and so on.


  4. In the Edit Record dialog box, do the following:
    • Type: Select CNAME.
    • Value: Enter the WAF CNAME address.
    • Leave other settings as they are. We recommend that you set TTL value to 10 minutes. The larger the TTL value, the slower the DNS propagation.
    Notes about editing DNS records:
    • For a hostname, the CNAME record is unique. You must edit it to the WAF CNAME address.
    • Different record type conflicts with each other. For example, for a hostname, the CNAME record cannot coexist with an A record, MX record, or TXT record. If you cannot change the record type directly, you can first delete the conflicting records and add a new CNAME record.
      Note The whole process of deleting and adding must be performed in a short time. Otherwise, your domain becomes inaccessible.
    • If the MX record is being used, you can use an A record to redirect web traffic to WAF. For more information, see WAF deployment guide.


  5. Click OK to complete the DNS settings and wait for the DNS change to take effect.
  6. (Optional) Verify the DNS settings. You can ping the domain or use DNS Check to validate whether the DNS change is effective.
    Note It takes a certain time for the setting to be in effect. If the validation fails, wait for about 10 minutes and re-validate it again.
  7. Check the DNS resolution status.
    1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud WAF console.
    2. On the Management > Website Configuration page, check the DNS resolution status of the domain name.
      • Normal: Alibaba Cloud WAF has been successfully deployed and the web traffic is being monitored by WAF.
      • Exception: With the exception messages of NO CNAME resolution detected, No traffic, or DNS check failed, the DNS settings may be incorrect.
        In this case, check the DNS settings. If you confirm that the DNS settings are correct, wait for an hour and refresh the DNS resolution status. For more information, see DNS resolution status exception.
        Note The exception here indicates that WAF is not properly deployed. Your website access is not affected.

Protect the origin

When the origin server IP address is exposed, attackers may exploit it to bypass Alibaba Cloud WAF and start direct-to-origin attacks. To prevent such attacks, we recommend that you configure the ECS security group or SLB whitelist to block all web requests that do not come from Alibaba Cloud WAF’s IP addresses. For more information, see Protect your origin server.

Edit A record to deploy WAF

The A record method is same as the CNAME one, except the following differences.
  • Prerequisites: After obtaining the WAF CNAME address, do the following to obtain the associated WAF IP address.
    1. In a Windows operating system, open the cmd command line tool.
    2. Run the following command: ping “copied WAF Cname address”.
    3. In the result, view the WAF IP address.
  • Procedure: In step 4 editing record, do the following:
    • Type: Select A.
    • Value: Enter the WAF IP address.
    • Leave other settings as they are.