What Is an SRV Record and How to Add One in cPanel

What is an SRV record?

DNS is like a phone book for the internet. An SRV record is a special line in that phone book. It says which server and which port a service uses. A port is a numbered door on a computer.

A normal A record only says where a name lives. An SRV record also names the service and its door. Chat, calendar and voice programs often need this.

Parts of an SRV record

Field	Meaning
Service	The name of the service, starting with an underscore, like `_sip`
Protocol	The way it talks, like `_tcp` or `_udp`
Priority	Lower numbers are tried first
Weight	Shares work between servers with the same priority
Port	The door number of the service
Target	The name of the server that runs it

Steps in cPanel

Get the values from the company that runs the service. They give you the service, protocol, priority, weight, port and target.
Log in to cPanel.
Open Zone Editor.
Click Manage next to your domain.
Click Add Record and choose Add SRV Record.
In Name, type the service and protocol, like _sip._tcp. cPanel adds your domain name for you.
Fill in Priority, Weight, Port and Target.
Click Add Record.

In some cPanel versions, the screen has separate boxes for Service and Protocol. Fill each one instead.

Warning: A wrong DNS record can break a service. Write down your existing records first.

The Target must be a name, not an IP address. It must point to an A record that exists.

Check it

Run this command with your own values.

dig SRV _sip._tcp.example.com +short

This asks DNS for the SRV record. It should print priority, weight, port and target. Changes can take a few hours to spread.

If you cannot see Zone Editor, your plan may not allow DNS changes. Ask Hostvento support.

Quick recap

An SRV record names a service, its server and its port.
Get the exact values from the service provider.
Add it in cPanel under Zone Editor.
The target must be a name, not an IP.