This article describes the domain setup options available for Cloudflare partners to add their customer’s domains to Cloudflare.
Overview
There are two options for a partner to add their customer's domain to Cloudflare:
- Full - Authoritative DNS is managed by Cloudflare.
- CNAME - Authoritative DNS is managed outside of Cloudflare.
Full setup
A Full DNS setup requires configuration changes at the existing DNS provider in order to point to Cloudflare's nameservers for authoritative DNS. Update the host provider's nameservers after the domain is added to Cloudflare.
Full DNS setup is currently available through these integrations:
- Host API
- cPanel plugin
CNAME setup
A CNAME setup does not require changes to authoritative DNS. Instead, proxy a subdomain to Cloudflare via a CNAME record.
Partial (CNAME) setup is available via these integrations:
- Host API
- cPanel plugin
- ServerShield extension for Plesk 12 and higher
The CNAME setup differs depending on whether an A record or CNAME record is currently used for a subdomain. The A and CNAME examples below use www.example.com as an example subdomain for proxy to Cloudflare.
If www.example.com is currently an A record:
www.example.com A 203.0.113.1
then, change www.example.com to a CNAME record in authoritative DNS:
www.example.com CNAME www.example.com.cdn.cloudflare.net
Additionally, add an A record in authoritative DNS to point traffic back to the origin IP:
cloudflare-resolve-to.www.example.com A 203.0.113.1
If www.example.com is currently a CNAME record:
www.example.com CNAME example.com
then, update www.example.com in authoritative DNS to:
www.example.com CNAME www.example.com.cdn.cloudflare.net
Additionally, add two records in authoritative DNS to point traffic back to the origin IP:
cloudflare-resolve-to.www.example.com CNAME example.com example.com A 203.0.113.1