Install cloudflared

Cloudflare Tunnel requires the installation of a lightweight server-side daemon, cloudflared, to connect your infrastructure to Cloudflare. cloudflared is an open source projectOpen external link maintained by Cloudflare.

Releases can be found on GitHubOpen external link. Downloads are available as standalone binaries or packages like Debian and RPM.

Detailed release notes can be found on the GitHub RELEASE_NOTES fileOpen external link.

​Linux

​.deb install

Use the deb package manager to install cloudflared on compatible machines. amd64 / x86-64 package in this example.

wget -q https://bin.equinox.io/c/VdrWdbjqyF/cloudflared-stable-linux-amd64.debdpkg -i cloudflared-stable-linux-amd64.deb

​.rpm install

Use the rpm package manager to install cloudflared on compatable machines. amd64 / x86-64 is used in this example.

wget -q https://bin.equinox.io/c/VdrWdbjqyF/cloudflared-stable-linux-amd64.rpmrpm -ivh cloudflared-stable-linux-amd64.rpm

​Build from source

You can also build the latest version of cloudflared from source with the following steps.

$ git clone https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared.git$ cd cloudflared$ make cloudflared$ go install github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/cmd/cloudflared

Depending on where you installed cloudflared, you can move it to a known path as well.

mv /root/cloudflared/cloudflared /usr/bin/cloudflared

​Docker

A Docker image of cloudflared is available on DockerHubOpen external link.

​macOS

You can install cloudflared on macOS systems via Homebrew:

$ brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared

Alternatively, you can download the latest Darwin amd64 release directlyOpen external link.

​Windows

Once cloudflared is installed:

1. Navigate to the Downloads folder.
2. Right-click on the ZIP folder and select Extract All to extract the executable.
3. Next, open PowerShell.
4. Navigate to the same Downloads folder.
5. Run the cloudflared.exe executable as an administrator to confirm the installation, replacing the path in the example below with the specifics of your directory:

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\cloudflared-stable-windows-amd64> .\cloudflared.exe --version

The command above should output the version of cloudflared if successfully installed.

​Build from source

You can also build the latest version of cloudflared from source with the following steps.

$ git clone https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared.git$ cd cloudflared$ make cloudflared$ go install github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/cmd/cloudflared

Depending on where you installed cloudflared, you can move it to a known path as well.

mv /root/cloudflared/cloudflared /usr/bin/cloudflared

​Updating cloudflared

You can update cloudflared by running the following command.

cloudflared update

The update will cause cloudflared to restart which would impact traffic currently being served. You can perform zero-downtime upgrades by using Cloudflare's Load Balancer product or by using multiple cloudflared instances.

​Updating with Cloudflare Load Balancer

You can update cloudflared without downtime by using Cloudflare's Load Balancer product with your Cloudflare Tunnel deployment.

1. Install a new instance of cloudflared and create a new Tunnel.
2. Configure the instance to point traffic to the same locally-available service as your current, active instance of cloudflared.
3. Add the address of the new instance of cloudflared into your Load Balancer pool as priority 2.
4. Swap the priority such that the new instance is now priority 1 and monitor to confirm traffic is being served.
5. Once confirmed, you can remove the older version from the Load Balancer pool.

​Updating with multiple cloudflared instances

If you are not using Cloudflare's Load Balancer, you can use multiple instances of cloudflared to update without the risk of downtime.

1. Install a new instance of cloudflared and create a new Tunnel.
2. Configure the instance to point traffic to the same locally-available service as your current, active instance of cloudflared.
3. In the Cloudflare DNS dashboard, replace the address of the current instance of cloudflared with the address of the new instance. Save the record.
4. Remove the now-inactive instance of cloudflared.

​Running multiple instances in Windows

Windows systems require services to have a unique name and display name. You can run multiple instances of cloudflared by creating cloudflared services with unique names.

First, install and configure cloudflared. Next, create a service with a unique name and point to the cloudflared executable and configuration file.

sc.exe create <unique-name> binPath='<path-to-exe>' --config '<path-to-config>' displayname="Unique Name"

Proceed to create additional services with unique names. You can now start each unique service.

sc.exe start <unique-name>

​Deprecated versions

Cloudflare currently supports versions of cloudflared 2020.5.1 and later. Breaking changes unrelated to feature availability may be introduced that will impact versions released prior to 2020.5.1. You can read more about upgrading cloudflared in our developer documentationOpen external link.