This tutorial is deprecated in favour of Proxy status · Cloudflare DNS docs
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This tutorial covers what records can be set to and what should be left at .
What does do?
The orange cloud means that traffic to that hostname is running through Cloudflare
This includes
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Masking your IP
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Caching
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an HTTPS certificate on the edge servers (a separate certificate on your server is still necessary)
What records can you enable for?
A, AAAA and CNAME are the only records that can have enabled, but not only those related to web-services should be set to (e.g. mail related records cannot be proxied)
When should you leave records ?
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If the record is anything other than A, AAAA or CNAME
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If you are trying to validate a service with a record
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For non web traffic, including Mail, FTP etc.
How to change records to or
- Login to Cloudflare
- Select the domain
- Go to the DNS app
- Click the cloud icon to toggle between and
When should you change your records to ?
If you have SSL set to ‘Off’, you can set the correct records to immediately, if you are using SSL, you may wish to wait until your certificate in Cloudflare has issued to avoid possible downtime. I would recommend waiting until you see this in your SSL/TLS app before you switch the relevant records to .
There is a support article about this available as well:
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200169626-What-subdomains-are-appropriate-for-orange-gray-clouds
If you have completed this, it looks like you are ready to move on to Step 4: Checking your site after adding it to Cloudflare!
This tutorial is one in the ‘Getting setup with Cloudflare’ series. They are listed below:
- Step 1: Adding your domain to Cloudflare
- Step 2: Setting up SSL with Cloudflare
- Deprecated - Step 3: Enabling the 'Orange Cloud'
- Step 4: Checking your site after adding it to Cloudflare
Tutorial Reference: CT-03
Reviewed: 07/21
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