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Create a partial zone using Terraform

A partial zone lets you use Cloudflare for a subdomain while keeping your existing authoritative DNS provider for the parent domain. This guide shows how to automate the setup using the Cloudflare Terraform provider ↗.

Prerequisites

Create the zone

Add the zone configuration and apply the change to create the zone:

resource "cloudflare_zone" "subdomain_example_com" {
  account = {
    id = var.cloudflare_account_id
  }
  name = "subdomain.example.com"
}

Then, in a new Terraform plan and apply cycle, upgrade the zone to a Business plan or higher:

resource "cloudflare_zone_subscription" "example_zone_subscription" {
  zone_id = cloudflare_zone.subdomain_example_com.id
  frequency = "monthly"
  rate_plan = {
    id = "business"
    currency = "USD"
  }
}

Then, again in a new Terraform plan and apply cycle, update your Terraform configuration to add type = "partial" to the zone:

resource "cloudflare_zone" "subdomain_example_com" {
  account = {
    id = var.cloudflare_account_id
  }
  name = "subdomain.example.com"
  type = "partial"
}

Terraform places the zone in a Pending state. You must add the necessary DNS records and verify domain ownership before Cloudflare activates it.