How to add, edit or delete an SRV record

What is an SRV record?

DNS is like a phone book for the internet. It turns a website name into a number that computers understand. Each entry is called a record.

Most records only name a server. An SRV record also names the service and the port. A port is a numbered door on a server. Different services use different doors. An SRV record says, "For this service, go to this server, at this door."

Programs such as chat apps, game servers, calendars and voice calling tools use SRV records. Your website does not need one.

Parts of an SRV record

• Service: the service name starting with an underscore, such as _sip.
• Protocol: how data travels, such as _tcp or _udp.
• Name: your domain.
• Priority: the lowest number is tried first.
• Weight: shares the load between servers that have the same priority. A higher number gets more traffic.
• Port: the number of the door.
• Target: the server name, such as server.example.com.

The app or service you use will tell you the right values. Hostvento support can also help.

Add an SRV record

1. Log in to the client area.
2. Open the DNS zone editor for your domain.
3. Click to add a record.
4. Set Type to SRV.
5. In Name, type the service and protocol, for example _sip._tcp. Some editors have separate boxes for these.
6. Fill in Priority, Weight and Port.
7. In Target, type the server name.
8. Click Save.

A full record may look like this:

_sip._tcp.example.com. 3600 IN SRV 10 60 5060 sipserver.example.com.

This says: for SIP calls over TCP, use sipserver.example.com on port 5060.

Edit or delete

1. Find the record in the list.
2. Click Edit to change it, or Delete to remove it.

Test it

nslookup -type=SRV _sip._tcp.example.com

This shows the SRV record for that service.

Quick recap

• An SRV record names a service, a server and a port.
• It has priority, weight, port and target.
• Get the exact values from the app that needs it.
• Target must be a server name, not an IP.
• Test with nslookup -type=SRV.