CNAME Flattening on a Free Account

Website, Application, Performance DNS & Network
1

What is the name of the domain?

lloydmatsstore com

What is the error number?

None

What is the error message?

None

What is the issue you’re encountering

Cannot determine whether a CNAME is being flattened

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue?

Checked all DNS Settings

What feature, service or problem is this related to?

DNS not responding/updating

What are the steps to reproduce the issue?

Check DNS records. We are trying to determine whether a CNAME is being flattened. For some reason, a DNS lookup for the subdomain (dnschecker) returns “Sorry no record found!” in the CNAME section. But we can clearly see the record in the DNS Zone:
Name: support
Content: lloydmatsstore zendesk com
Proxy Status: Proxied

But we see no indication of whether it is being flattened, nor any indication otherwise why the CNAME does not resolve in a DNS lookup. I would post the actual link to the DNS Checker query, but CF keeps throwing an error about not posting more than 4 links, even though I am only posting one. Hopefully, you can reproduce the DNS check.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

2

If the record is proxied, it will always be flattened as it must return a Cloudflare IP address for the proxy to work.

If not proxied, a paid plan is required to flatten records (apart from the apex domain which has to be flattened to comply with RFCs).

1 Like
3

Further to this, when you go to the subdomain support lloydmatsstore com, you get this:

Error 1000

Ray ID: 921fd2f32bae7b15 • 2025-03-17 22:11:04 UTC

DNS points to prohibited IP

What happened?

You’ve requested a page on a website that is on the [Cloudflare] network. Unfortunately, it is resolving to an IP address that is creating a conflict within Cloudflare’s system.

What can I do?

If you are the owner of this website:
you should [login to Cloudflare] and change the DNS A records to resolve to a different IP address. But there is no A record, just the aforementioned CNAME record, which points to a zendesk subdomain URL.

4

What DNS record do you have for that subdomain?

5

That is the same record that was initially reported:
Name: support
Content: lloydmatsstore zendesk com
Proxy Status: Proxied

So if we un-proxy the CNAME, would that fix the problem?

6

Any guidance on the question of whether turning of Proxy for that CNAME will resolve the flattening problem?

7

If the record is proxied, it is flattened. If you switch to “DNS only” it won’t be flattened unless you are on a paid account and enable flattening for that record or across the whole zone.

8

Thanks! We de-proxied it and now it is resolving the CNAME.

9

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