Use Cloudflare R2 as storage for microservices

When executing a microservice it is necessary to "call" a file, whether to copy, download, or write to it, it is very important to choose the correct location for this. In on-premises work environments, without users working remotely or from home, the safest and simplest option is to use storage accessible by all devices on the corporate network; however, in scenarios where there are mobile devices that cannot remotely access the corporate network repository, it may be necessary to opt for a secure and public access repository design.

Suppose we want to install an application on all devices regardless of whether they are at home, on the go, or on the office network. To help us meet these types of requirements, there are multiple cloud service options, where Cloudflare acts as a security and performance proxy between users and servers. Its main services (CDN and DDoS protection) make anything on the internet faster, safer, and more reliable.

R2 is its cloud object storage service (similar to Amazon S3) distinguished by its policy of zero egress fees, also allowing free accounts with more than sufficient conditions, even for production environments.

In order to use it, you need to:

1. Create an account associated with an email by following the steps in this link: https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/account/create-account/
2. At the end, the associated email must be verified. If you haven't received the email, remember to check your spam folder.
3. Once the account is created and activated, R2 must be activated from the user menu/billing/subscriptions. A payment method will be requested for overages, but it's free if certain conditions are met.

info

R2 free accounts include:

	Free
Storage	10 GB per month
Class A operations	1 million requests per month
Class B operations	10 million requests per month
Egress (data transfer to the Internet)	Free 1

Full details available at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/#free-tier

Upload files

In order to host and utilize uploaded files, you will need to:

1. Create a bucket.
2. Inside the bucket, there is a button called Upload that allows you to upload files.

Establish access methods

Cloudflare allows various access methods like:

• R2 Workers Binding API
• S3 API compatibility
• Public buckets

For demonstration purposes, in this article we will use Public buckets.

Accessing files from microservices

Each file uploaded to R2 generates a unique link in its properties. You can see it by clicking on the file:

That link allows you to obtain the file from the microservice using, for example, PowerShell's Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet or simply requesting a microservice created with AI with instructions that include the download URL:

It's always recommended, if not using AI-created microservices, to log milestones during execution so that in case of any error or malfunction, identifying the problem becomes easier: