[HOWTO] XenForo attachments via Amazon S3 and CloudFlare

Prerequisite:

• XenForo 1.1.4+
• [bd] Attachment Store 0.9.5+

Step 1. Obtain Amazon Web Services Security Credentials

Go to https://portal.aws.amazon.com/gp/aws/securityCredentials and login. You may need to create a new one if you haven't had an Amazon account. Click the "Create a new Access Key" link to create a new key pair. Please note that Amazon only allow 2 key pairs per account so you will not see the create link if your account has already reached the limit.

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Step 2. Create an Amazon S3 bucket

Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/home and sign up for the service if asked. Click the "Create Bucket" button and start fill in the bucket name and select a region for your bucket. A few things to remember:

• If you plan to use subdomain link for the attachment, you need to enter the subdomain as your bucket name. For example, for this website I want to access the attachment via the subdomain attachments.xfrocks.com, I will use it as the bucket name.
• You should select the region closest to your primary audience for best result. The cost for each region is different, so take that into account when you decide too. More information here.

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Step 3. Configure [bd] Attachment Store

Go to AdminCP > Home > Options > Attachments, look for the option [bd] Attachment Store and select "Store files in Amazon S3". You will need to fill out the key ID and secret from step 1. The bucket name and region from step 3. You can optionally change the "Protocol" if you don't want it to be auto-detected: by default, the S3 link will use the same protocol (https or http) as your page to prevent security warnings.

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Step 4. Configure subdomain/CloudFlare

If you decided to follow the subdomain approach, you can use CloudFlare free service to reduce the Amazon S3 cost by routing requests through CloudFlare before they hit Amazon servers. If you don't use CloudFlare, you still need to configure your subdomain or your attachment links will not work. Below is the instruction to set it up with CloudFlare.
Go to https://www.cloudflare.com/my-websites and click "DNS Settings" for your website. Create a new CNAME record with your subdomain as the name and <bucket-name>.s3.amazonaws.com as the value. Make sure you enable CloudFlare for the new subdomain (the orange cloud).

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Upon saving, it should look like this:

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And you are done! All images in this HOWTO are attachments served via Amazon S3/CloudFlare.

 

Andy: you may want to read this https://xfrocks.com/other/threads/howto-xenforo-attachments-via-amazon-s3-and-cloudfront.60/?

[HOWTO] XenForo attachments via Amazon S3 and CloudFront

Prerequisite: XenForo 1.1.4+ [bd] Attachment Store 0.9.7+ Step 1. Obtain Amazon Web Services Security Credentials + CloudFront Key Pair Follow step 1...

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