Glossary · DNS

SRV record

A DNS record that locates specific services on a domain — like which server to talk to for SIP, XMPP, or Microsoft 365 autodiscover.

SRV (Service) records advertise the location and port of specific services, not just a host. They're used by protocols that need to find "the SIP server" or "the autodiscover endpoint" for a domain.

The format is unusual: the record name encodes the service and protocol.

_sip._tcp.yourdomain.com.   SRV   10 60 5060 sip.yourdomain.com.

Reading that: "For the SIP service over TCP at yourdomain.com, the server lives at sip.yourdomain.com on port 5060, with priority 10 and weight 60."

You'll most commonly encounter SRV records when setting up:

Microsoft 365 autodiscover — lets Outlook clients automatically find your mail server configuration
SIP / VoIP services — phone systems use SRV to find the right server
Minecraft servers — _minecraft._tcp for connecting players to your game server on a custom port
XMPP / Jabber chat — legacy messaging protocol

For most domains running websites + email, you don't need SRV records. The service that wants one will give you the exact value to paste.

SRV record

Now the jargon makes sense — let us handle the rest.