Ability to add Glue Records

Feedback Feature Request Submitting & Feedback
1

Hello all,

I manage a few customer domain names and rather than setting them all up in cloudflare individually, I want to be able to point them all to my own nameserver records, but manage that nameserver record in Cloudflare as it gives a possibility to change it if the server IP or location ever changes.

Yes, I am aware that Cloudflare offers “vanity nameservers” but that is not what I am after… I simply want to be able to add a glue record to my own NS record.

I have the below set up working quite well - the only issue is that Cloudflare don’t allow the setting / sending of Glue records… so that is my feature request :slight_smile:

As it stands I have it working as follows (sharing in case others find this useful);

  1. Set up master domain record as follows;

    myexample. com is registered at another registrar and then pointed to Cloudflare nameservers e.g. this.ns.cloudflare and that.ns .cloudflare. com (added spaces to prevent this post putting hyperlinks on!)

  2. Inside cloudflare, configure the records for the domain “myexample. com” as follows (55.66.789.12 is my fictitious server IP) - all records should be set to grey cloud DNS only to allow pass through.

    A ns1 55.66.789.12
    A ns2 55.66.789.13
    A myexample .com 55.66.789.12
    A www 55.66.789.12
    MX myexample .com 55.66.789.12
    NS myexample .com ns1.myexample .com
    NS myexample .com ns2.myexample .com

  3. On my server I have configured ns1.myexample .com > 55.66.789.12 and ns2.myexample .com > 55.66.789.13

  4. Then at the registrar for clientdomainexample .com point to > ns1.myexample .com and ns2.myexample .com

This all works fine, except that intodns etc will report that there is (NO GLUE) coming from the nameservers ns1.myexample .com and ns2.myexample .com. This is typically not too much of an issue, but I have found some troubles with .com tlds.

So - Cloudflare, give us the chance to set our own glue records on the free plan :slight_smile:

2

That doesn’t make sense to me. Or i can’t find it. :thinking:

You are running your own DNS infrastructure, manage the records in those servers, have all records :grey: at Cloudflare (DNS only, which is fine).

It seems to me that you’re trying to run something like a hidden primary?

3

From your example that seems to be precisely what you are after, right? Your example shows two ns? records which you later want to use for the very same domain.

If you just want to set up records which you can eventually use for third party domains you wont need glue, but just regular A(AAA) records which you then assign to your domains.

So, yeah, I agree with @MarkMeyer, your explanation does not seem to fit in with what you stated as your requirement. Maybe you can elaborate more.

4

Are you using Cloudflare as your domain registrar?

At your DNS service – Cloudflare – you just need to create the A and AAAA records for your nameservers.

At your domain registrar – possibly Cloudflare – you need to register them/create glue/whatever they call it with the same names and IPs.

Edit:

I just reread your post and saw that you’re using a different registrar.

By the way, registering them may not be required, depending on what TLDs are at play.

2 Likes
5

Hi everyone, thank you for your comments.

@MarkMeyer
That doesn’t make sense to me. Or i can’t find it.

What doesn’t make sense? I’m not sure what a hidden primary is, feel free to explain - I am simply trying to point customer domain names to my custom Nameservers - but manage that custom nameserver on Cloudflare to take advantage of the global CDN.

@sandro
"vanity nameservers”… From your example that seems to be precisely what you are after, right?

No because I am on the free plan and all I really need is the ability to set Glue records for my custom nameservers - because otherwise, they work fine!

@sandro
If you just want to set up records which you can eventually use for third party domains you wont need glue, but just regular A(AAA) records which you then assign to your domains.

That is what I already do / have per my example in the OP (step 4). However, there are (occasionally) times when the same tld issue occurs per description below

@mnordhoff
Are you using Cloudflare as your domain registrar?

No - I have registered my domains elsewhere and pointed the Authoritative Nameservers to Cloudflare.

By the way, registering them may not be required, depending on what TLDs are at play.

Yes, I am aware of that. I have not had many issues with my set up as mentioned above, however, I recently came unstuck with a .com domain (my nameservers are .coms and the customer domain was a .com and it wasn’t resolving correctly - the issue was - there were no glue records for my nameservers.

As per my example in the OP - the set up works great except where the same tld’s come into play.

The nameservers and DNS are all hosted on my VPS which is all good, but the glue records are what are missing.

As mentioned, I am aware that the Vanity Nameserver feature exists on CF - but I am not in a position to move to the Enterprise plan.

6

“No” what? You seem to be asking the very thing I (and you actually) described.

So - taking from your other example - your actual issue is registrars which do not allow you to set your nameservers in a setup where glue is actually not even required?

In that case Cloudflare is the wrong addressee anyhow. You will need to contact your registrar.

Though, even if Cloudflare was your registrar, AFAIK they do not support the setting of glue records for the time being.

7

@sandro

I think you have missed the entire point of this post… which was asking (as a feature request) to allow us the "Ability to add Glue Records"

I don’t need Vanity Nameservers from Cloudflare (and can’t afford Enterprise level plan), I just need to be able to set glue records on a domain within Cloudflare.

8

I understand that and the request is perfectly fine, I am merely trying to explain to you why Cloudflare is the wrong contact in your particular case and - even if it were applicable - it might be anyhow unlikely that Cloudflare will implement your request - at least in the near future.

As for a feature request, it is perfectly fine :slight_smile:

9

What I understood is, that you want to manage DNS via your self hosted DNS servers as primary dns (hidden behind Cloudflare’s authoritatives), get Cloudflare to resolve the records and use their features. And therefore let them handle your DNS traffic as well. That’s a hidden primary.

This way you can’t use any Cloudflare services. Given that .12 is :grey: too. (DNS only).

Your feature request is valid but only if you use Cloudflare as your registrar. Glue records need to be added at the registry which is responsible for that particular TLD. This needs to be done by your current registrar, or if you have direct access you can set them on your own.

Glue records are also only needed in case you want to use the same domain name for both, resolving the zone and running nameservers under that domain. But I guess that’s the case here.

I use vanity nameservers here and it was pain in the a%$ to get those glue records set up through my registrar, because I can’t set them on my own. You will get what you pay for… :sweat_smile:

Nameservers need to be on different Class C networks, glue or not. I guess your example didnt’t cover this to keep it simple!?

.

10

The OP seems to have some cases where the registry/ar appears to insist on glue records, even though technically not necessary.

In the OP’s case the whole case is not applicable as he is not using Cloudflare as registrar, though even if he did, see my previous response :slight_smile:

11

Thank you for your comments which are helpful and I appreciate the discussion.

I can’t use CF as my registrar (would love to!) - but sadly they don’t support the particular .tld that I am using as my child / custom nameservers.

I can’t add Glue records manually at the registry (that I am aware of!) as I understand that is handled by the registrar. However, at the registrar where I have purchased the master domain (Porkbun) I am choosing to delegate to CF because I want to take advantage of CF’s CDN for super fast edge propagation.

I should mention that I have registered the A records for my child / custom nameservers both in my server’s nameserver DNS zone file: ns1.myexample .com. IN A 55.66.789.12… and on the CF interface (as A records shown in the OP)

As mentioned, - overall it works great, but recently I had a customer domain e.g. joesplumbing .com that would not resolve and after 2 or 3 support tickets to the domain registrar support team (enom in this case) they finally updated the record manually and the domain began to resolve OK - but they cited the lack of GLUE record as the issue…

Hence the reason for asking for the ability to add a glue record…

As mentioned, I would like to use CF as registrar, but unable to as my tld is not supported by them. I guess my request is unlikely, but I was putting it out there to see if it might be possible!!

I realise the best option might be to either a) buy an Enterprise plan to be able to use CF vanity nameservers (not something I can yet stretch to) or b) go elsewhere to be able to achieve what I am doing…

12

Updated to nameservers currently set? In that case glue records are not necessary as the domain does not use nameservers within its own zone. Hence “technically not necessary”.

Again, even if glue records are not technically necessary in the cases you mentioned, the feature request itself is perfectly legitimate of course. Registrars typically do allow the configuration of glue records.

Nonetheless, I’d recommend to rather go with option B. Cloudflare does offer

Again, your feature request is perfectly legitimate - even if glue records are not really required in your case - however I’d honestly still recommend to rather choose option B.
Cloudflare does offer a registrar service at this point but that service is still quite limited and it seems - for the time being at least - it is not their primary focus to become a registrar. It rather is a basic registrar addon for people already using Cloudflare and wanting to have their domain registered at the same place.

13

Does that mean if I were to be able to use Cloudflare as my registrar (e.g. transfer in the current domain - or purchase a new one that is supported!), that I could set glue records and also use the CF DNS only feature to passthrough the set up to my server zone records?

In other words, I could use the same as the OP example, but also set Glue records? Or am I misunderstanding?

14

Currently Cloudflare does not support the setting of glue records.

15

Glue records are created at your registrar. You have stated Cloudflare is not your registrar so there’s nothing to do/change in Cloudflare’s dashboard/DNS.

2 Likes
16

I am using Cloudflare as my registrar and would like to +1 the ability to set glue records so I can host my own DNS server (off of cloudflare).

17

That is not related to glue records however. Currently Cloudflare simply does not allow different nameservers if you are using the registrar service.

Glue records would only be necessary if you want to use nameservers under the very domain where you want to set them and that is currently already possible, requires a Business plan however.

18

I’m on the Business plan (and use Cloudflare as Registrar)
I set a custom dns (vanity servers if you want to call it that way) and it resolves nicely.

However the glue records in whois still show the Cloudflare DNS names.
I opened a support ticket, lets see what it gets me.

Silly but if its not working I’m afraid I have to transfer my domains away (keeping Cloudflare Business of course) to make this work with the custom nameserver (using a registrar which can set glue records).