Before the Akamai EdgeWorker processes a client request, the proxy will call the DataDome API through the HttpRequest module. Depending on the API response, the integration will either block the request and return the content provided by DataDome, or let Akamai proceed with the regular process. The module has been developed to protect the users’ experience: if any errors were to occur during the DataDome process or if the call to DataDome reaches a timeout, the integration will automatically assume a 200 for that request, and continue the process normally.

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you already have:
1. Access to the Akamai Dashboard: https://control.akamai.com/apps/home-page/
2. Set up the concerned website as an Akamai Property: https://control.akamai.com/apps/property-manager
3. Enabled access to the Akamai EdgeWorkers from the Akamai Marketplace: https://control.akamai.com/apps/marketplace-ui
4. Ability to create EdgeWorkers: https://control.akamai.com/apps/edgeworkers/

📘

We support both Basic and Dynamic Akamai EdgeWorker resource tier. We recommend to use Basic resource tier.

5. If you are using Akamai SiteShield, ensure that your SiteShield map setup allows traffic worldwide, as DataDome is deployed globally. This means allowing the largest possible Akamai IP range to connect to your origin. You can work with Akamai to review and validate the appropriate IP ranges for your setup.
6. If you are using Phased release cloudlet make sure the path /validate-request does not match it

Installation

Setting up the EdgeWorker

1. Access the EdgeWorkers Management screen at: https://control.akamai.com/apps/edgeworkers.
2. Click on the Create EdgeWorker ID button at the top-right.

3. The Create EdgeWorker ID modal is shown
   1. Set the name of the EdgeWorker to EW_DataDome_Protection
   2. The Group refers to which set of access permissions you are going to apply to the newly created EdgeWorker
   3. Set the Resource Tier to Basic Compute

4. A new row will be added to the EdgeWorker table.

📘

By default the EdgeWorker is not enabled in either Staging or Production

5. Click on the respective ID, the EdgeWorker ID details page will be shown.
6. Click on the Create Version button, the Create Version modal will be shown.

7. Drag and drop the provided tar file in the droppable area.

8. The droppable area should validate the dropped bundle

9. Click on the Create version button on the bottom-right of the modal.
10. A row will be added to the Versions table.
11. Click on the last version added, the EdgeWorker version details page will be shown.
12. Click on the Activate version button, the Activate version modal will be shown.

13. Choose a Network to deploy this version to.

📘

It is recommended that deployments are first done in Staging to be validated, then deployed to Production when all the necessary checks are made

❗️

EdgeWorker environments are updated separately, the activation process needs to be done twice to update both the Staging and the Production environments

14. Click on the Activate version button to proceed; the EdgeWorker version details page will get updated with a notification on the top-right and a progress bar.

15. Kindly wait until the progress bar is full and green, and the version is marked as active in that environment.

Changes in the Property Manager

Step 0: Create a new version of your Akamai property

1. Go to your Akamai property you would like to protect with DataDome.
   
2. Create a new version of this property to be able to update it.

❗️

You need to create a new version of your property, otherwise you will not be allowed to edit a Property version that is already deployed to Staging and/or Production.

Step 1: Add the following variables and their respective value in the Property Variables section

📘

Please note that Akamai prepends the variables with PMUSER\_ - no need to re-add it.

Step 2: Enable the EdgeWorker

1. Scroll down to the Property Configuration Settings panel and click on +Rules and Standard property behavior.

2. The Add Rule modal will be shown. Search for Blank Rule Template. For this documentation we will be naming the rule EW_DD_Rule. Click on the Insert Rule button.

3. By default, Akamai adds new rules at the very end of the configuration settings. Scroll to the very bottom of the list and click on the newly added rule. Both the Criteria and Behaviors panels should be empty.
4. Add the following criteria in the Criteria panel - this will not forward static file requests to the EdgeWorker
   1. Criteria: Match All
   2. Case Sensitive: Off
   3. Condition _: If
      File extension
is not one of

avi
flv
mka
mkv
mov
mp4
mpeg
mpg
mp3
flac
ogg
ogm
opus
wav
webm
webp
bmp
gif
ico
jpeg
jpg
png
svg
svgz
swf
eot
otf
ttf
woff
woff2
css
less
js
map

5. Add the following behaviors in the Behaviors panel:

📘

Please note that the behaviors need to be added in the order specified in the table

6. Click on the Save button at the top-right or bottom-right.

Step 3: Forward the call from the EdgeWorker to the DataDome API

📘

This part of the installation is required because Akamai EdgeWorkers are not allowed to make subrequests to origins that are not on the Akamai network. For this reason the /validate-request path is mapped to forward the requests to the DataDome API: see Akamai documentation

1. Scroll down to the Property Configuration Settings panel and click on +Rules and Standard property behavior.

2. The Add Rule modal will be shown; search for Blank Rule Template. For this documentation, we will be naming the rule OriginConnectivity_DD_Rule. Click on the Insert Rule button when done.

3. By default, Akamai adds new rules at the very end of the configuration settings, scroll to the very bottom of the list, and drag this new rule before the previously created EW_DD_Rule as in the below screenshot.

4. Click on the newly added rule. Both the Criteria and Behaviors panels should be empty.

5. Add the following Criteria:

   1. Criteria: Match All
   2. Condition _: If
      Path
      matches one of
      /validate-request

6. Click on the +Behavior button (top-right of the Behaviors panel) and add the following:

7. If you are using Akamai SureRoute, disable it for this rule.
8. Click on the Save button at the top-right or bottom-right

Step 4: Bypass mPulse

❗️

Please note that this step only applies if the mPulse module is configured in your property

Due to the size of mPulse Javascript and Akamai's limitation on EdgeWorker, when DataDome responds with a challenge, we need to disable mPulse. We only disable it for the CAPTCHA and block page.

1. Under the Property Configuration Settings Section, find the Augment Insights >
   mPulse RUM rule.

2. In the Criteria section, add the following rule:
   1. Criteria: Match All
   2. Condition: If
      Path
      does not matches one of
      /validate-request

🚧

Please make sure that the mPulse API key is filled in; this is because the condition set up above will only take effect if this value is provided.

This value can be found by following the steps found at: https://techdocs.akamai.com/mpulse/docs/about-edge-injection.

Step 5: Activate the changes

1. Activation is required to test the setup. Switch to the Activate tab at the top.

2. Click on the Activate vX on the Staging button, and the Activate version modal will be shown.

🚧

It is recommended that deployments are first done in Staging to be validated, then deployed to Production when all the necessary checks are made.

❗️

An email address must be provided to receive a notification upon completion of the activation process.

3. Click on the Activate vX on Staging button to proceed; the Property version activation details page will get updated with a notification on the top-right and a progress bar.

4. Kindly wait until the progress bar is full and green, and the version is marked as active in that environment.

Troubleshooting

If you are not seeing any traffic on the DataDome Dashboard, or if challenges are not displayed, follow these steps:

Step 1: Validate Akamai EdgeWorker is executed

1. Validate the DataDome variables have been correctly defined inside the INITIAL VALUE column and not the DESCRIPTION column.
2. Make a request to a page that you want to protect, with an additional Pragma header:

Pragma: akamai-x-get-client-ip, akamai-x-cache-on, akamai-x-cache-remote-on, akamai-x-check-cacheable, akamai-x-get-cache-key, akamai-x-get-extracted-values, akamai-x-get-nonces, akamai-x-get-ssl-client-session-id, akamai-x-get-true-cache-key, akamai-x-serial-no, akamai-x-get-request-id, akamai-x-ew-debug

3. In the response, look for two headers: x-akamai-edgeworker-onclientresponse-info and x-akamai-edgeworker-onclientrequest-info.
   1. If they are present, make sure that the version of the EdgeWorker that has been executed is the one you deployed. In this example, the version is v1.1.0
      HTTP Headers

      < x-akamai-edgeworker-onclientresponse-info: ew=81212 v1.1.0:EW_DataDome_Protection; status=Success
      < x-akamai-edgeworker-onclientrequest-info: ew=81212 v1.1.0:EW_DataDome_Protection; status=Success
      

   2. If they are not present, verify the rule to call the EdgeWorker is correctly set up (Step 3).

Step 2: Validate DataDome API is being called

1. Add the variable EW_DD_ENABLE_LOGGINGwith the value true inside the Akamai DataDome property.
   This will add a x-datadome-log header to all responses going through the Akamai EdgeWorker.
2. Redeploy your Akamai property.
3. Make a request to a page you want to protect.
4. Inspect the HTTP response and look for the x-datadome-log header.
5. Depending on the value of x-datadome-log, follow the next steps.

Datadome Validate response status code

If the DataDome call status is not 200:

• Ensure EW_DD_LICENSE_KEY and other variables are correctly set:
  • Incorrect values may cause 400 errors.
• Check if the /validate-request path is altered by Akamai and remove it from all policies:
  • This can lead to 404 errors. (The request will be sent to the internal redirect URL instead of EW_DD_DOMAIN)

No X-DataDomeResponse in DataDome response

If there is no X-DataDomeResponse header in the DataDome response, it means that headers are being removed from DataDome HTTP responses by one of your Akamai Policies.

Solution: Remove any policy that can alter DataDome headers.

RangeError: Response body length exceeds limit of 2048

It means the challenge page returned by DataDome is too large.
Akamai forces the body to be less than 2048 characters and the challenge sent by DataDome is under 2048 characters, but additional services may add content to the response body.

It is generally due to Akamai mPulse Monitoring being enabled for your Property. mPulse adds a lot of JavaScript content inside the page to be able to monitor it.

Solution: You need to disable mPulse for calls to the DataDome API

FAQ

How can I exclude IPs and not send traffic to DataDome?

• Akamai allows ClientIP match based on an IP address, a range of IP addresses, or a CIDR block.
  • The IP values can be added separated by space, comma, or carriage return.
  • For more information, please check Akamai's official documentation page.