How to Enable the Spaces CDN

Spaces provides a built-in content delivery network (CDN), which is a network of edge servers that deliver content to users. Each point of presence (PoP), the location of a group of edge servers, sends content to users that are physically closest to it. CDNs help deliver static and dynamic online content faster and more reliably and provide a layer of redundancy for websites. The Spaces CDN is subject to the same transfer charges as Spaces.

You can enable the Spaces CDN either when creating a new Space or on an existing Spaces bucket’s Settings tab, under the CDN (Content Delivery Network) section.

Once you enable the Spaces CDN for a bucket, you can access the contents of that bucket using the edge URL <spacename>.<region>.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com in addition to the existing origin URL. You can also customize the CDN endpoint with a secure subdomain you own.

You can also use presigned URLs with the Spaces CDN by configuring your SDK or S3-compatible tool to use the non-CDN endpoint, generating a presigned URL for a GetObject request, and then modifying the hostname in the URL to use the CDN hostname (<space-name>.<region>.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com, unless the bucket uses a custom hostname).

Requests made using presigned URLs aren’t cached by the Spaces CDN. Each request is forwarded to the Spaces origin, even when the request uses a CDN endpoint or custom domain. As a result, presigned URLs don’t benefit from reduced latency or cache hits. Using presigned URLs with the CDN is primarily useful for maintaining a consistent hostname or custom domain, not for improving performance.

Enable CDN for a Bucket Using the Control Panel

To enable CDN for a bucket, go to the control panel, in the left menu, click Spaces Object Storage, and then under the Buckets tab, click the bucket you want to enable CDN for. From the bucket’s overview page, click the Settings tab, and then under the CDN (Content Delivery Network) section, click Edit, and then click Enable CDN.

Afterwards, click Save if the default edge cache TTL works for you and you do not need a custom subdomain, or set up a custom subdomain.

The Edge Cache TTL determines how long content is cached by the CDN’s edge servers before the current version is retrieved from the origin. You can keep the default of 1 hour or choose another value.

The default edge cache TTL provides a balance between performance and freshness. It allows frequently accessed content to benefit from CDN caching while ensuring updates propagate reasonably without requiring manual cache purges.

A longer TTL improves performance but delays the visibility of updates until the cache expires. Use longer TTLs for static or infrequently changing content and shorter TTLs for dynamic content. You may also increase the TTL to handle anticipated traffic spikes.

You can modify the edge cache TTL setting and custom subdomain at any time.

Set Up a Custom Subdomain

The CDN’s edge servers begin caching and serving the contents of the Spaces bucket from the default CDN endpoint, <spacename>.<region>.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com. Optionally, you can configure a secure subdomain you own as an alternative endpoint, such as images.example.com.

For security, any subdomain you use with the Spaces CDN must have an SSL certificate. When you configure a custom endpoint, you can either create a new certificate during setup, upload an existing certificate during setup, or choose a certificate that is already uploaded to your DigitalOcean account.

To add a custom subdomain, click Add a New Subdomain to open the Add a custom subdomain window. You can either create an SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt or use your own certificate.

• Use Let’s Encrypt. If you manage your domain’s DNS with DigitalOcean, you can create a free, fully managed SSL certificate with the Let’s Encrypt integration.
• Bring your own certificate. If you host your domain’s DNS with another provider, you can manually create and upload a certificate.

If you already have a certificate for the subdomain you want to use, select it from the menu and click Save. We automatically create a CNAME record if required and begin serving content from the custom subdomain.

Edit or Remove a Custom Subdomain

To edit or remove a custom subdomain, go to the control panel, click Spaces Object Storage, select the bucket, click the Settings tab, and then under CDN (Content Delivery Network) section, click Edit.

To remove the subdomain and serve content only from the default CDN endpoint, click Remove Custom Subdomain, and then click Confirm.

Enable CDN Using Automation

You can enable the Spaces CDN for a bucket by creating a CDN endpoint whose origin points to the bucket’s Spaces origin URL via CLI (doctl) or the DigitalOcean API. Once enabled, the bucket is accessible from an edge URL such as <bucket-name>.<region>.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com, and you can optionally configure a custom domain secured with a DigitalOcean-managed TLS certificate.

Enable CDN via the CLI

To enable the CDN via the CLI, create a CDN endpoint with doctl compute cdn create and pass your bucket’s Spaces origin URL.

Enable CDN via the API

To enable the CDN via the API, use the CDN endpoint with a Spaces origin by specifying your bucket’s Spaces origin URL (for example, https://<bucket-name>.<region>.digitaloceanspaces.com) as the origin, and then send a POST request to /v2/cdn/endpoints with the origin field set to that URL.

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"origin": "static-images.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com","certificate_id": "892071a0-bb95-49bc-8021-3afd67a210bf","custom_domain": "static.example.com","ttl": 3600}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/cdn/endpoints"

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    createRequest := &godo.CDNCreateRequest{
        Origin:        "static-images.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com",
        TTL:           3600,
        CustomDomain:  "static.example.com",
        CertificateID: "892071a0-bb95-49bc-8021-3afd67a210b",
    }

    cdn, _, err := client.CDNs.Create(ctx, createRequest)
}

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

cdn = DropletKit::CDN.new(
  origin: 'static-images.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com',
  custom_domain: 'static.example.com',
  certificate_id: '892071a0-bb95-49bc-8021-3afd67a210bf',
  ttl: 3600
)

client.cdns.create(cdn)

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

create_req = {"origin": "static-images.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com", "ttl": 3600}
create_resp = client.cdn.create_endpoint(create_req)

Disable CDN Using the Control Panel

Disabling CDN removes cached files and certificates from edge servers but does not delete the bucket or its contents.

To disable CDN, go to the bucket’s Settings tab, click Edit, under CDN (Content Delivery Network) sub-section, toggle off Enable CDN, and then click Save.

Disable CDN Using Automation

You can disable the Spaces CDN by deleting the CDN endpoint associated with the bucket via the CLI (doctl) or the DigitalOcean API. Disabling the CDN stops edge caching and removes the CDN URL.

Disable CDN via the CLI

To disable CDN via the CLI, first list CDN endpoints with doctl compute cdn list to find the CDN endpoint ID associated with the bucket. Then, delete the appropriate endpoint with the CDN endpoint ID.

Disable CDN via the API

To disable CDN via the API, send a DELETE request to /v2/cdn/endpoints/{cdn_id}.

curl -X DELETE \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/cdn/endpoints/19f06b6a-3ace-4315-b086-499a0e521b76"

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    _, err := client.CDNs.Delete(ctx, "19f06b6a-3ace-4315-b086-499a0e521b76")
}

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

client.cdns.delete(id: '19f06b6a-3ace-4315-b086-499a0e521b76')

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

delete_resp = client.cdn.delete_endpoint(cdn_id="bba23af")