Set-up a Rackspace CDN service

Quick guide for setting-up a CDN on Rackspace.

CDN Set-up

Log into your Rackspace MyCloud account. Click into Storage > CDN then “Create Service”. In the next pop-up set the Service Name, this is the internal identifier you’ll use to manage the CDN.

Choose Traffic Type

Traffic Type will almost always be HTTPS and your content will be supplied using an SSL from the CDN. If you select HTTP you will not be able to use the CDN content on a website secured by SSL.

Choose Certificate Type

You can select a Certificate Type. A “Shared Rackspace Domain Certificate” will require minimal set-up as it will use an SSL certificate supplied by Rackspace, this will include a URL for the CDN provided by Rackspace. Selecting a “Shared SAN Certificate” will allow you to use your own domain name and upload an SSL to authenticate it.

Domain Name

If you selected a “Shared Rackspace Domain Certificate” you can create a unique secure.raxcdn.com domain name which will be used to supply your CDN content. If selected your own certificate you can enter the domain name of your custom CDN domain.

Origin

The Origin URL is the source of the CDN files, this will typically be the URL visitors use to access your website. This is where Rackspace will copy your cached content from.

Implementation

Now that you have the CDN set-up in Rackspace you will be able to use your new CDN URL to load static content on your website.

You can begin by swapping out the URLs for CSS and JavaScript. For example:

• Old: https://example.com/logo.png

• New: https://examplecom.xyz1234.secure.raxcdn.com/logo.png

• Old: https://example.com/wp-content/themes/theme/style.css
• New: https://examplecom.xyz1234.secure.raxcdn.com/wp-content/themes/theme/style.css

The only difference between the two URLs should be the domain name. The subdirectories should match exactly.

That’s it.