Why can't I use a private IP address?
There are several blocks of IP addresses that are reserved for use on private networks - networks not connected directly to the internet. They are free for anyone to use, but they can't be connected to the internet because they don't point to a specific address.The relevant paragraphs on containing private IPs are from RFC 1918.
From Section 3:
Indirect references to [private IPs] should be contained within the enterprise. Prominent examples of such references are DNS Resource Records and other information referring to internal private addresses. In particular, Internet service providers should take measures to prevent such leakage.
And from Section 5:
If an enterprise uses the private address space, or a mix of private and public address spaces, then DNS clients outside of the enterprise should not see addresses in the private address space used by the enterprise, since these addresses would be ambiguous.
Since our DNS is publicly available, RFC 1918 strongly suggests we shouldn't put private IPs in our resource records. There is a possibility of a DNS client on the internet asking for the record and receiving the ambiguous address.
See Also:
What is DNS and how to set up Direct DNS Pro or Direct DNS Basic?
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