DNS records for load balancing

When you create a load balancer , Cloudflare automatically creates an LB DNS record for the specified Hostname. This functionality allows you to use a hostname with or without an existing DNS record.

​​ Supported records

For customers on non-Enterprise plans, Cloudflare supports load balancing for A, AAAA, and CNAME records.

For customers on Enterprise plans, Cloudflare supports load balancing for A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, SRV, and TXT records.

​​ Priority order

For hostnames with existing DNS records, the LB record takes precedence when it is more or equally specific:

• Scenario 1:

  • A, AAAA, or CNAME: x.example.com
  • LB record: x.example.com
  • Outcome: LB record takes precedence because it is as specific as the DNS record.

• Scenario 2:

  • A, AAAA, or CNAME: y.example.com
  • LB record: *.example.com (wildcard record)
  • Outcome: DNS record takes precedence because it is more specific.

• Scenario 3:

  • A, AAAA, or CNAME: *.example.com
  • LB record: *.example.com
  • Outcome: LB record takes precedence because it is as specific as the DNS record.

​​ Disabling a load balancer

When you disable a load balancer, requests to a specific hostname depend on your existing DNS records:

• If you have existing DNS records, these records will be served.
• If there are no existing records, requests to the hostname will fail.

In both cases, disabling your load balancer prevents traffic from going to any associated origin or fallback pools.

​​ SSL/TLS coverage

Due to internal limitations, Cloudflare Universal SSL certificates do not cover load balancing hostnames by default. This behavior will be corrected in the future.

As a current workaround for a domain or first-level subdomain (lb.example.com), create a proxied CNAME/A/AAAA record for that hostname.

To get coverage for any deeper subdomain (lb.dev.example.com), purchase an advanced certificate .