Flares is a simple and a free command line CloudFlare DNS backup tool that you can use. Here it uses the CloudFlare API to fetch the DNS details from your account and then save to a BIND file. Also, if you want to see them on the terminal window then you can do that. To use this, it just uses your API key and then you just have to run a simple command to use it. However, the installation process is not very straight forward. But after you install it once, you can use it forever easily.
If you want to back up the DNS data of all the domains that you have in your CloudFlare account then you can use this tool. It can save the DNS data from your account in BIND file format. And you can see all the domain names with the corresponding records that you have configured so far. You can export and save the DNS data from CloudFlare to any folder on your PC and then use it whenever you want.
How to Backup CloudFlare DNS?
If you have a VPS or a Linux/MAC PC then you can easily use it. In my case, I will be using DigitalOcean for the same. You can install it either from the source or you can use Docker as well. But Docker build seems to be broken at this time, so I will be explaining the other approach to install it.
Create a Droplet and then log in to the server as root user. After that, you will have to run the “apt-get golang” to install Go and then you can proceed with the further process. These steps will guide you on how to set it up and use it.
Step 1: Run the following commands to grab the GitHub code and then you can navigate to the folder where the files are downloaded.
go get -u github.com/lfaoro/flares/cmd/flaredns
Step 2: Run this command to set up two environment variables. In one variable, you will have to specify the API key of the CloudFlare and in the second, you will have to specify the email address that is registered with your CloudFlare account.
export CF_API_KEY=abcdef1234567890
export CF_API_EMAIL=someone@example.com
Step 3: Now, run the following command and it will generate the binary file and will place in the “bin” directory set in GOPATH. In my case the GOPATH is at “root/go/bin”.
make install
Step 4: Now, you can start using this tool to back up the CloudFlare DNS. After running this command, it will save a BIND file at the specified folder. And then you can open it to see the details about the DNS. See the screenshot below.
flaredns "YourDomain" --export "Path to save the BIND file"
Above, you can see how this tool works to help you backup CloudFlare DNS. And you can easily setup it in on your server or on PC. Only the first time, you will have to spend a few minutes in installation and then you can easily use it by running a simple command.
Final thoughts
If you are looking for a way to backup CloudFlare DNS then you can use this simple tool which I have mentioned. You just have to run a few commands to easily install it on your PC and then you can easily use it to backup the DNS data in a BIND file format on your PC or server.
