Managing DNS Now (AND later) During Site Redevelopment

Getting Started
#1

Hello, newbie to CF. I have set up a handful of FREE accounts. Seems easy with CF using the existing DNS records after the scan. Awesome!

However, I have (2) questions:

  1. I have a site now that is already pointing to an existing CF account. We redeveloped their site and it’s on a new server. There are (2) A Records that say “Proxied” with an IP address. Would we just change the IP for those (2) A Records so they point to the new server? Allowing all the other records (email, etc) to stay as is? That’s what we’d typically do at say, GoDaddy (just update the A records).

I assume that’s the case, but that brings up a separate question:

  1. I had assumed that if we changed DNS at the registrar to point to CF, if we ever wanted to revert and get rid of CF, we’d just point back to the the registrar (which may have had many separate records). However, I suspect if you repointed back to say GoDaddy, the separate A records would NOT be the original ones, they just be the default records (which theoretically be incorrect). Does that mean if for some reason, you wanted to leave CF, you’d have to manually copy the records that are currently in CF and then manually input those all to the registrar??

That makes me a bit nervous - should we have notated the exact set up before having CF take over in case we had to revert at a future date? It appears everything is working now, but want to ensure I have exit strategy if we ever needed to stop using CF. Not sure how to tell exactly how things were setup initially (meaning, if the site had full DNS pointed to a host and separate records there, or if a site had DNS set to registrar with just the A record pointing to a host, and everything else held there, etc).

Thanks a million!!

#2

Yes. If it’s just the website that moved, that should do it. Keep a close eye out for any other “A” records with the same IP address, as those may also have to be changed.

If you leave CF, then you’d point your name servers back to the ones of your web host. But take a screenshot of your CF DNS records so you know what your working configuration is.

1 Like
#3

THANK YOU!

So yeah, the screenshot is the important piece.

Now… on that note and one last thing. Current site is on cloudflare. They have (2) A Records:
1 A record name is listed as the URL
1 A record name is listed as www

BOTH are pointed to the same IP.

About to put the new site live, and in all other setups, there is only ONE A record (name is the URL). Then there is a CNAME “www” record with the url.

What’s the difference between the two ways: 2 A records or 1 A record and 1 CNAME record for the www?

I don’t want to set the wrong record.

Thanks!

#4

It’s ok to use a CNAME for www instead of an A record. Some hosts prefer it that way.

#5

Ok, so either way? Same thing? Doesn’t matter?

If so, I appreciate your time!

#6

Go with whatever the host tells you to do. In this case, it’s the CNAME.

#7

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