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We have a domain example.com on AWS Route 53, that is our authoritative DNS. We also use Cloudflare for security, so our domain goes through Cloudflare.

I've found that whenever we create any subdomains, whether it be med.example.com or app.example.com, these CNAME records must also be added to Cloudflare in order for them to work. Many people have said it's not required, but the page throws a 404 error every time if the subdomains are not added to Cloudflare.

So that was fine at the time, I added them to Cloudflare and everything loaded up. But now I am encountering an issue. For med.example.com, we are using an LMS system called EthosCE. There are certain features like SCORM and a course overview dashboard that are not loading because of Cloudflare.

Is it possible to remove my subdomain from Cloudflare altogether and still have it load?

I tried using page rules to disable literally everything on the subdomain, but it still gives the 404 error when I try to view the dashboard. (The rest of the site works, it's just certain parts of it that seem to be encountering problems because of Cloudflare.)

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    It sounds like when you switched to cloudflare you switched your NS records to point to cloudflare. I don't think that route 53 is your DNS server anymore. It sounds like cloudflare is.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jul 22, 2020 at 18:56

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As Stephen mentioned, if you switched your NS records to CloudFlare, that means that your DNS provider is CloudFlare now, and Route 53 is only acting as your registrar.

If this is the case, then any DNS record changes you make in Route 53 (with the exception of the NS records which serve as a "root") will not have any effect, since Route 53 is no longer your DNS provider.

What you are likely wanting to do is to bypass the CloudFlare reverse proxy for your subdomain, so that HTTP/HTTPS traffic goes directly to your subdomain's server instead of being proxied through CloudFlare first. You can do that by clicking the little orange cloud next to the subdomain's DNS record in CloudFlare so that it turns gray.

For more information on the orange/gray cloud and how CloudFlare reverse proxies, see their support article here:

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200169626-Identifying-subdomains-compatible-with-Cloudflare-s-proxy

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  • Oh, I see. So Route 53 is no longer the authoritative DNS. So if I were to remove our subdomain records from Route 53 but kept them on Cloudflare, ideally they should still load like before? There would be no change. Also, I've tried doing the bypass by clicking the cloud, I've also tried adding page rules, and none of that works. So, I'm not sure what else I could do. Is there a way to have our NS records on Route 53, and still have it go through Cloudflare? Or do the NS records have to be on Cloudflare?
    – Kiran Fatima
    Jul 23, 2020 at 14:35
  • If you are set up like I believe you are, then yes, your Route 53 records are no longer in effect (except for NS). The cloud bypass (gray) makes it so that CloudFlare does not intercept any HTTP/HTTPS traffic (so this also bypases page rules), so any issue at that point is going to be with your DNS settings and/or your server, not anything special that CloudFlare is doing.
    – Maximillian Laumeister ♦
    Jul 23, 2020 at 17:23
  • There is no way to have Route 53 nameservers and still use CloudFlare unless you have a business/enterprise plan, but there's also no reason you should need that. If you do, look here.
    – Maximillian Laumeister ♦
    Jul 23, 2020 at 17:23

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