SRV (Service) records are DNS records that allow Minecraft clients to connect to a server using a custom domain without needing to specify the port number. The client will automatically look up the SRV record to discover the server’s location and port.

SRV Record Components

An SRV record for Minecraft consists of three main components:

Name (Service Record)

The name follows the format: _minecraft._tcp.SUBDOMAIN.OTHERSUBDOMAIN

In our case:

• Service: _minecraft._tcp
• Subdomain: gtnh
• Other Subdomain: lab
• Note: This does NOT include the top-level domain (e.g., .com, .net)

Target

The target should be the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server host where the Minecraft server is actually running.

Port

The port number that the Minecraft server is listening on (default is 25565 for Java Edition).

Example

For a server setup, your complete SRV record might look like:

• Name: _minecraft._tcp.gtnh.lab on the johnrowley.co domain.
• Target: gtnh.lab.johnrowley.co or server.example.com
• Port: 30002 (or your custom port)