DNS management with CloudFlare

DNS management with CloudFlare How to purchase your domain (or move it) and manage it with CloudFlare.

 

 

What can I use this for?

As Searchie Hub's custom domain feature requires your domain to use CloudFlare as it's DNS manager, this guide will walk you through purchasing a domain (if you don't have on already) and configuring your DNS zone in CloudFlare. It will also break down migrating your DNS zone to this platform (in case you already have a domain and not in CloudFlare).

Here are some quick links to the other steps in the guide:

• Purchasing a domain

• Creating a CloudFlare account

• Configure or Migrate your DNS Zone to CloudFlare

• Change your NS records to CloudFlare

• How to configure root domain or subdomain

• How to configure both domain AND subdomain

Step 1 - Purchase a domain

This step is as hard as creating an account in a registrar website and buying the domain. We don’t have a preferred domain registrar, but here are some of the most popular:

• GoDaddy

• domain.com

• namecheap

• bluehost

• DreamHost

It’s up to you to find which is your more convenient option. That said, we have some tips for deciding:

• Some domain name registrars can automatically pre-check add-on services when you purchase a domain name. If you don’t uncheck those options, then this would increase your bill significantly. Typically a ".com" domain name should not cost you more than $14.99 / year. If it does, then it should raise a red flag in your decision-making process.

• Some domain registrars may have special offers for cheaper domains for first-time registrations. The renewal costs of the domain are sometimes quite different and much higher, so be aware of those tricky promotions and what comes after them.

Step 3 - Create a CloudFlare account and configure your DNS Zone

All you need to do is head to CloudFlare's sign-up page and create your account.

HINT: Confirm your email after receiving the email from CloudFlare to do so, this is a really important step.

Step 4 - Set up or migrate your DNS Zone to CloudFlare

Once you've created your CloudFlare account, go to your site's dashboard.

Add your domain in your account with the following steps:

1. Click the “Add site” button.

2. Enter your domain and click "Continue".

3. Scroll down, select the Free plan and click "Continue".

4. Check your current DNS records (if you are migrating).*

5. Copy your NS records and configure them in your registrar site.

*HINT: In Step 4.4, it is important to check all your current DNS records if you are moving your DNS Zone to CloudFlare from a different platform. To do so, go to your current DNS manager, list all your DNS records and check one-by-one that are correctly copied to CloudFlare. If there is a missing record, simply add it.

Step 5 - Change your NS records to CloudFlare

Log in to your registrar account and replace your current Name Server records with CloudFlare's values. It can take 24 hours to process a Name Server update.

Step 6a - Configure your root domain or subdomain

Go to your "DNS" tab in your site's dashboard in CloudFlare and add the CNAME record for your Searchie Hub.

If you want to use your root domain use these values:

If you want to use a subdomain, for example "hub.domain.io", use the subdomain as Name:

Step 6b - Configure both domain AND subdomain

Searchie can configure only one domain/subdomain for a Hub, but a workaround for this is to create a redirect rule in CloudFlare so if anyone tries to access your subdomain, it will redirect to your domain, or vice versa.

In this example we'll configure a redirect rule for the subdomain "hub.mysite.io" to the domain "mysite.io".

1. Log in your account and go to your site's dashboard.

2. Go to the "DNS" tab and configure both domain AND subdomain with the CNAME record.

3. Go to the "Rules" tab, scroll down and click "Create Page Rule" on the right.

    

   

    

4. Complete the redirect rule with the following values.

    

   

    

5. Click "Save and Deploy"