An origin, or origin server, is the machine that contains your website or app and the content in your site.

Why do I need this?

The configuration file you're making is a property. Every property must include instructions for how or when our servers should talk to your origin. Our network's servers request updated information from your origin server depending on what you set in the Origin section of the guided workflow.

How does it work?

This set of options is how you tell our servers where to go when they need to talk to your origin. You're telling us the type of origin you're using, where it lives on the web, and a few other bits of information that let our servers interact with your origin safely.

Once we have the location of your server and your content, we can send requests to your origin when we need to.

Features and options

Web server

If you are using a web server, you'll need to add an origin hostname to your DNS zone. We'll use your existing hostname for our edge servers and create an origin hostname on your behalf. This lets us deliver your content from our servers instead of yours.


Field	What is it?	Notes
Origin type	Choose the type of origin server you have: Web server, AWS S3, or Google Cloud Storage.	If you are using a cloud provider other than Amazon or Google, choose Web server.
Origin hostname	An origin hostname is the new hostname you'll use for your origin server. We've prepopulated one for you, but you can choose to use something else.	To keep your origin hostname easily identifiable, use prefix `o-` . For example, `www.example.com` becomes `o-www.example.com` .

Cloud providers

If you're using S3 or Google Cloud Storage you'll still need to provide us with the information we need to reach your servers. Both of these cloud providers use the same settings for the same objects so you can use this table for reference with either provider. The setup instructions for both of these providers are also the same.


Field	What is it?	Notes
Origin server	Choose the type of origin server you have: Private server, AWS S3, or Google Cloud Storage. When you choose one of the cloud providers, additional options appear.
S3 Bucket hostname	This is the hostname for your virtually-hosted content on S3. The S3 bucket hostname typically follows this pattern: `mybucket.s3.amazonaws.com` .	Amazon's bucket hostname
Bucket hostname	This field serves the same purpose as the S3 bucket hostname. It typically follows this pattern: `mybucket.storage.googleapis.com`	Google's bucket hostname
Authenticate	Click this checkbox if your origin requires requests to be authenticated.	If your origin requires authentication for requests from our edge servers, you'll need the Access key ID and Secret you use to access your cloud provider.