Deprecated - Step 3: Enabling the 'Orange Cloud'

This tutorial is deprecated in favour of Proxy status · Cloudflare DNS docs

Archive

This tutorial covers what records can be set to :orange: and what should be left at :grey:.


What does :orange: do?

The orange cloud means that traffic to that hostname is running through Cloudflare
This includes

  • Masking your IP

  • Caching

  • an HTTPS certificate on the edge servers (a separate certificate on your server is still necessary)


What records can you enable :orange: for?

A, AAAA and CNAME are the only records that can have :orange: enabled, but not only those related to web-services should be set to :orange: (e.g. mail related records cannot be proxied)


When should you leave records :grey:?

  • If the record is anything other than A, AAAA or CNAME

  • If you are trying to validate a service with a record

  • For non web traffic, including Mail, FTP etc.


How to change records to :orange: or :grey:

  1. Login to Cloudflare
  2. Select the domain
  3. Go to the DNS app
  4. Click the cloud icon to toggle between :orange: and :grey:

When should you change your records to :orange:?

If you have SSL set to ‘Off’, you can set the correct records to :orange: 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 :orange:.


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:



Tutorial Reference: CT-03

Reviewed: 07/21

This is a Community Tutorial, most are wiki posts, so can be contributed to by Regulars and MVPs here. If there is a tutorial you would like to see, you can request one here.

If you would like to provide any feedback on this tutorial, please post in the #Meta category, tag your post #TutorialFeedback and let us know the Tutorial Reference above.

Other great resources on this community include the Community Tips . These address best practices when configuring Cloudflare, how to fix issues you may see, and tools to troubleshoot. Also you can view Expert Tips, great posts on the community from people in the know that may help you with your issue.

We encourage users to check out these great resources and the Cloudflare Support Centre before posting


5 Likes