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Migrating Nameservers to SiteCare’s Cloudflare Account

Ryan Sullivan

This process applies when SiteCare will host the authoritative Cloudflare zone for CoreSpeed.

1. Inventory the existing DNS zone

Before changing nameservers, provide SiteCare with an export or complete inventory of the current DNS zone.

The review should include:

  • Apex and www records
  • Other website subdomains
  • MX records
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records
  • CAA records
  • SRV records
  • Third-party verification records
  • Delegated subdomains
  • VPN or remote-access records
  • Wildcard records
  • Existing redirects
  • Current proxy or CDN configuration

Cloudflare can scan or import records, but its documentation advises manually reviewing the results and adding anything missing before changing nameservers.

Zone files can also be imported in BIND format. Proxy status and some Cloudflare-specific settings require separate review after import.

2. Review DNSSEC

Check the registrar for an existing DS record before changing nameservers.

For most migrations, the standard process is:

  1. Remove the existing DS record at the registrar.
  2. Wait for its TTL to expire.
  3. Change the authoritative nameservers.
  4. Activate DNSSEC in the new Cloudflare zone.
  5. Add Cloudflare’s new DS record at the registrar.

Changing nameservers while an old DS record remains active can cause validating resolvers to return SERVFAIL.

Organizations that require continuous DNSSEC can use Cloudflare’s advanced multi-signer migration procedure, provided the current DNS provider supports the required DNSKEY workflow. That process should be planned separately.

3. Prepare the Cloudflare zone

SiteCare will:

  • Add or import the DNS records
  • Review proxy status
  • Configure the CoreSpeed origin
  • Prepare the required Workers and routes
  • Confirm edge certificate issuance
  • Validate critical non-web records
  • Grant the customer Administrator-level zone access

Cloudflare recommends beginning with records set to DNS-only until certificate and origin requirements have been confirmed, then proxying the appropriate web records.

4. Change nameservers

At the registrar:

  1. Remove the previous authoritative nameservers.
  2. Add the two nameservers assigned by Cloudflare.
  3. Confirm the values match exactly.
  4. Remove any additional nameservers not assigned to the zone.

Cloudflare notes that registrar processing can take up to 24 hours, although changes are often visible sooner.

5. Validate the delegation

Useful commands include:

dig NS example.com @1.1.1.1
dig NS example.com @8.8.8.8
dig example.com +trace
whois example.com

After delegation is active, test:

  • Website resolution
  • www behavior
  • Email routing
  • Critical subdomains
  • Third-party applications
  • Cloudflare proxying
  • TLS certificates

The website origin cutover can then be performed through Cloudflare without requiring another nameserver change.

Related Cloudflare documentation

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