SRV record
An SRV record publishes the hostname and port a specific service is reachable on for a domain, in the format `_service._proto.name`, letting a client look up where to connect for something like SIP or XMPP without a single fixed port the way HTTP uses port 80. It carries priority and weight values so multiple servers can share load or fail over, similar in spirit to how MX records route mail to multiple servers by priority. The same host-and-port advertisement pattern appears in DNS-SD (RFC 6763), which layers SRV, PTR, and TXT records on top of multicast DNS so devices on a local network can discover services like printers or media servers automatically -- the same mDNS-based discovery mechanism covered in AdminKit's LAN discovery guide, where the convenience of automatic discovery comes with broadcasting device and service details to anything listening on the same network segment.
By AdminKit team, Netbase JSC · Updated