How to host a subdomain with a different web host and add to Cloudflare?

Question

I have a website example.extension hosted with a US web hosting company.

The domain is registered with GoDaddy, and uses name servers from the US web hosting company.

I wish to have a sub-domain this.example.extension hosted with an Australian web hosting company.

I know I can add an A record for this.example.extension in example.extension's cPanel.

However, I also wish to use Cloudflare for this.example.extension, and this requires creating a CNAME record, and CNAME records cannot coexist with A records for the same domain or subdomain. i.e. I cannot have an A record for this.example.extension and a CNAME record for this.example.extension (according to cPanel).

At the moment, there is simply a CNAME record pointing this.example.extension to this.example.extension.cdn.cloudflare.net

I've added the site to Cloud Flare, and Cloud Flare knows where the website is created.

Is this enough to ensure the site loads fine?

Help appreciated.

Answer 1

1. configure your site at the Australian web hosting. Make sure the site is configured as this.example.extension. You'll have the IP where the site is located. Yes, you won't be able to see the site, but it's OK for now.
2. at Cloudflare configure this.example.extension.cdn.cloudflare.net to that IP
3. profit! :)

The caveat is the Australian hosting may trouble you because this.example.extension doesn't point to their server. Two ways to deal with this: 1. say 'i know, do it anyway' 2. choose another hosting.

btw, it's better to transfer dns to CloudFlare, if possible. their dns-es are faster than your, and geo-distributed.