Set up advanced nameservers

Advanced nameservers included with Foundation DNS are an opt-in configuration.

Before you begin

Before opting in for advanced nameservers, consider the following:

• The advantages that come with Foundation DNS advanced nameservers are currently not available for custom nameservers. Make sure you only use one at a time.

Differences from standard nameservers

Some behaviors are different from standard Cloudflare nameservers:

• Wildcard records: if moving from standard Cloudflare nameservers to Foundation DNS advanced nameservers, make sure to explicitly create records for subdomains currently covered by wildcard records (*.example.com).
• Subdomain delegation: once a subdomain is delegated via NS records, Cloudflare will not serve any other records (such as A, TXT, or CNAME) on that subdomain from the parent zone, even if those records exist.

Example

DNS management for example.com | Type | Name | Content | | -------- | -------- | ------------------------- | | NS | www | ns1.externalhost.com | | NS | www | ns2.externalhost.com | | TXT | www | "5bb16e6b5a444eedb48ace40c471bcc9" | | A | www | 192.0.2.1 |

In this example, the TXT record and the A record for www.example.com will not be served.

Enable on a zone

To enable advanced nameservers on an existing zone:

1. Opt for advanced nameservers on your zone:

   Dashboard
   1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard ↗ and select your account and domain.
   2. Go to DNS > Records.
   3. In the Cloudflare nameservers card, enable Advanced nameservers.
   4. After you refresh the page, the card will display the values for your advanced nameservers NS records.
   API

   Use the Update DNS Settings endpoint to send a PATCH request like the following:

   Required API token permissions

   At least one of the following token permissions is required:

   • Zone DNS Settings Write
   • DNS Write

   Update DNS Settings

   curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_settings" \
     --request PATCH \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
     --json '{
       "foundation_dns": true
     }'

   The response body will contain your assigned namservers in the nameservers object. You will use these nameservers in the next step.

2. Update the authoritative nameservers at your registrar. This step depends on whether you are using Cloudflare Registrar:

   • If you are using Cloudflare Registrar, contact Cloudflare Support to have your nameservers updated.

   • If you are using a different registrar or if your zone is delegated to a parent zone, manually update your nameservers.

     Warning

     Make sure the values for your assigned nameservers are copied exactly.