Validate

Before a certificate authority (CA) will issue a certificate for a domain, the requester must prove they have control over that domain. This process is known as domain control validation (DCV).

Warning

With the upcoming change to certificates issued by DigiCert, both email and CNAME DCV will soon be unsupported.

DCV situations

Non-wildcard certificates

Specific (non-wildcard) custom hostnames can use HTTP based DCV for certificate renewals, as long as:

• The hostname is pointing to the SaaS provider.
• The hostname’s traffic is proxying through the Cloudflare network.

If your custom hostnames do not meet these requirements, use another validation method.

Wildcard certificates

Wildcard custom hostnames require TXT-based validation. As the SaaS provider, you have two options for wildcard custom hostname certificate renewals:

• DCV Delegation (auto-issuance)
• Manual

Minimize downtime

If you want to minimize downtime, explore one of the following methods to issue and deploy the certificate before onboarding your customers:

• Delegated DCV: Place a one-time record at your authoritative DNS that allows Cloudflare to auto-renew all future certificate orders.
• TXT validation: Have your customers add a TXT record to their authoritative DNS.
• Manual HTTP validation: Add a TXT record at your origin.

Minimize customer effort

If you value simplicity and your customers can handle a few minutes of downtime, you can rely on Cloudflare automatic HTTP validation.

Potential issues

To avoid or solve potential issues, refer to our troubleshooting guide.