1. Overview and rationale

Currently, one must either know the exact address of a server to contact it, or broadcast a question.

The SRV RR allows administrators to use several servers for a single domain, to move services from host to host with little fuss, and to designate some hosts as primary servers for a service and others as backups.

Clients ask for a specific service/protocol for a specific domain (the word domain is used here in the strict RFC 1034^std13 sense), and get back the names of any available servers.

Note that where this document refers to "address records", it means A RR's, AAAA RR's, or their most modern equivalent.