How to configure settings.php for Drupal site with Varnish and CDN?

Question

I am completely new to the back-end issues, so I would appreciate any detailed answers with explanation.

We need to configure our settings.php file so that it works with Varnish and CDN. Currently, it's commented out by default. I read the comments over and over in the settings.php, and it doesn't make much sense, or I don't know how to provide the information.

In the most simple scenario, the proxy server will add an X-Forwarded-For header to the request that contains the client IP address. However, HTTP headers are vulnerable to spoofing, where a malicious client could bypass restrictions by setting the X-Forwarded-For header directly. Therefore, Drupal's proxy configuration requires the IP addresses of all remote proxies to be specified in $conf['reverse_proxy_addresses'] to work correctly.

...

In order for this setting to be used you must specify every possible reverse proxy IP address in $conf['reverse_proxy_addresses']. If a complete list of reverse proxies is not available in your environment (for example, if you use a CDN) you may set the $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] variable directly in settings.php. Be aware, however, that it is likely that this would allow IP address spoofing unless more advanced precautions are taken.

Several things that concern me:

1. What comments do I need to uncomment?
2. Since I'm using a CDN, I guess I'll have to use: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']. But what are the "advanced precautions" available that I can take to prevent IP spoofing?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you don't know what you're doing (and to a certain extent even if you do) it's probably better to use modules to accomplish what you're trying to do:

1. Varnish
2. CDN

This is mainly due to the extra configuration and set-up help you get with the modules