How to set up CloudFlare for your website

You can find general information on CloudFlare cPanel addon in our older blog post and here we’re going to talk about how to set it up for your website.

Follow these steps to make setup:

• press CloudFlare icon located in the Software section;
• choose a desired domain from a list;
• pick one of the two available options with Full Zone or Partial (CNAME) Setup (picture 1);

Picture 1

In a few words, Full Zone Setup makes CloudFlare’s DNS your authoritative DNS and CNAME is just about pointing your subdomain to CloudFlare. To find out more please follow the link located above the setup buttons.

We’re going to look into both options, so let’s consider partial (CNAME) option first:

• press the Provision Domain with CNAME Setup button;
• check a list of current DNS-records with new CNAME-records (picture 2);

Picture 2

If you now ping your subdomain you’ll see that CloudFlares IPs are already in place (picture 3)

Picture 3

Note that CNAME setup doesn’t make CloudFlare your authoritative DNS, which means that your DNS is still managed from your client area or registrar’s panel. Also pay attention to the fact that in this case CloudFlare accelerates and protect subdomain, not the root domain itself. That’s why all the traffic going to your root domain should be redirected to the subdomain.

Next option is Full Zone setup – after clicking Provision Domain with Full Zone Setup button you’ll get your new nameservers entries (picture 4), which you have to set instead of current nameservers for your domain. To do this go to your Client Area→Domains→My Domains→Manage Domain→Manage Nameservers (picture 5).

Delete default nameservers names, copy and paste the new ones (picture 6)

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Note that propagation can take up to 24 hours, but there should be no downtime and your website remains accessible. You can check if nameservers are set by running Recheck Nameservers (see picture 4).

Once new DNS are functioning properly Full Zone Setup is completed, requests both to your root domain and subdomain are rooted through CloudFlare content delivery network (CDN).

You can play with all kind of options provided by CloudFlare directly from your cPanel. Default settings should cover most common requirements, but it’s up to you to readjust them to your particular needs. Additional info on CloudFlare features can be found at https://www.cloudflare.com/

If you have any questions about CloudFlare addon or require assistance please contact us in any convenient way via Skype, live chat or ticket system.