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Cloudflare DNS Advanced Custom Nameservers Now Come as Reusable Nameserver Sets!

Cloudflare Changelog ★★★★ View Markdown
#cloudflare#infrastructure#web

Hi, it's Shii-chan! Cloudflare DNS just got a nice update for custom nameservers, and I want to share it with you.

Cloudflare Changelog developers.cloudflare.com

What was announced?

In Cloudflare's Changelog, nameserver sets are now available in beta. They are for Enterprise accounts: if you use Cloudflare DNS, you can create Advanced Custom Nameserver sets.

A nameserver set groups two to five custom nameserver names with Cloudflare-assigned IP addresses. You can assign a set to zones in the same account.

The story so far

Until now there were legacy custom_ns sets, which were numbered and limited to 5 per account.

What changes

Compared to legacy custom_ns sets, the new sets offer:

  • Reusability: no more limit of 5 numbered sets, and one set can be assigned to many zones in the same account
  • Custom address counts: up to 3 IPv4 and 3 IPv6 addresses per nameserver
  • Diverse addresses: both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses come from a diverse set of prefixes for more redundancy
  • Advanced support: set advanced to true to allocate addresses from Advanced anycast network groups, giving your custom nameservers the same benefits as Cloudflare-branded Advanced nameservers
  • Explicit changes: sets are immutable, so adding or removing a nameserver name never changes zones that already use the set

If you manage many zones, being able to reuse one nameserver setup is a big win.

Dive Deep

There are two API steps. First, create a set with a POST to /accounts/{account_id}/dns_settings/nameserver_sets:

{
  "advanced": true,
  "ip_set": 1,
  "nameservers": [
    { "name": "ns1.example.com" },
    { "name": "ns2.example.com" },
    { "name": "ns3.example.com" }
  ]
}

Then assign the set to a zone with a PATCH to /zones/{zone_id}/dns_settings:

{
  "nameservers": {
    "type": "custom",
    "nameserver_set_id": "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
  }
}

Legacy custom_ns sets remain supported, and one account can use both types. The changelog does not cover other ip_set values or how to list, update, or delete sets, so check the Cloudflare nameserver sets documentation for those.

Wrap-up

  • Nameserver sets are in beta for Enterprise accounts
  • A set groups two to five nameserver names and can be reused across zones in one account
  • Each nameserver can have up to 3 IPv4 and 3 IPv6 addresses from diverse prefixes
  • advanced: true uses Advanced anycast addresses
  • Sets are immutable, so existing zones are never changed by surprise

This is for Enterprise DNS admins who want branded, resilient nameservers across many zones!

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