OpenSSH (ssh or sftp) client support of DNS SRV records

[SCOTT FIELDS]

This was discussed some time ago (SRV lookup support (Bugzilla 2217)), but I'd like to revisit.

I would find value in using a multi-homed SSH/SFTP homed server solution that's not tied to a specific DNS IP address.

Most solutions I'm aware of use a port forwarding load-balancer solution.

And some newer solutions are using DNS based load balancers.

The advantage of using a SRV record solution is you don't have to invest in a port-forwarding solution or even a DNS load balancer and still be able to leverage having multiple redundant SSH servers.

I don't see any follow-up. and not sure if any reason was put forward why it's a bad idea.

The front end code already exists in other products that already leverage this. 'sendmail' is the most obvious example.

AKA,

You have the following SRV records:

_ssh._tcp.<mydomain.com>

_ssh._tcp.<mydomain.com has SRV record 0 110 123 sshserver1.<mydomain.com
_ssh._tcp.<mydomain.com has SRV record 0 110 123 sshserver2.<mydomain.com
_ssh._tcp.<mydomain.com has SRV record 0 110 123 sshserver3.<mydomain.com

And the client can determine the SSH servers available in the domain, if present and use the load balancing rules to decide which to connect to.

Scott Fields
Kyndryl