Pi-Hole Guide

Table of Contents

1. Installation
2. Disable DNS Server
3. Configuration
- 3.1. Configure Pi-hole
  - 3.1.1. Password
  - 3.1.2. Launch
- 3.2. Configure Router
  - 3.2.1. DNS Settings

1. Installation

Docker installation reference documentation can be found here

Create a folder

mkdir -p ./repo-docker-master/stack-networking

Change current directory

cd ./repo-docker-master/stack-networking

Create a Docker compose file

Expand for docker-compose.yml contents

version: "3"

services:

  # More info at https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole/ and https://docs.pi-hole.net/
  pihole:
    container_name: Pi-hole
    image: pihole/pihole:latest

    ports:
      - "8082:80/tcp" # UI
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      #- "67:67/udp" # Only required if you are using Pi-hole as your DHCP server

    environment:
      - TZ=America/New_York
      - DNSMASQ_LISTENING=all
    # Volumes store your data between container upgrades

    volumes:
      - ./Pi-hole-data/etc-pihole:/etc/pihole
      - ./Pi-hole-data/etc-dnsmasq.d:/etc/dnsmasq.d
    #   https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole#note-on-capabilities

    #cap_add:
    #  - NET_ADMIN # Required if you are using Pi-hole as your DHCP server, else not needed
    restart: always

Start the Docker container
```
sudo docker-compose up -d
```
This will fail to start since port 53 is already bound to the systemd-resolved.service.
We’ll disable this in the next step…

2. Disable DNS Server

By default port 53 is tied to the caching DNS stub resolver service.

sudo ss -ltnp | grep :53
LISTEN 0      32     xxx.xxx.xxx.x:53         0.0.0.0:*    users:(("dnsmasq",pid=8108,fd=6))
LISTEN 0      4096   127.0.0.53%lo:53         0.0.0.0:*    users:(("systemd-resolve",pid=3691922,fd=14))

Disable the service

sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved.service

Stop the service

sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved.service

Edit resolv.conf
1. Open the file
  sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
2. Update the name server
  Like so
  #nameserver 127.0.0.53 nameserver x.x.x.x (1) nameserver 8.8.8.8 (2)
  1 This is the router’s IP address.
  We’ll hard-code this for now until Pi-hole is configured as the DHCP server.
  
  2 Google Public DNS.
Now restart the container
```
sudo docker-compose up -d
```

3. Configuration

3.1. Configure Pi-hole

3.1.1. Password

Get the randomly generated admin password or set it to a new value.

Get the password
```
sudo docker logs Pi-hole | grep password
```
Example 1. Output

sudo docker logs Pi-hole | grep password

s6-rc: info: service _startup: starting
[i] Assigning random password: YOhz14Lq
[✓] New password set
Set the password
```
sudo docker exec -it Pi-hole pihole -a -p
```
Example 2. Output

sudo docker exec -it Pi-hole pihole -a -p

Enter New Password (Blank for no password):
Confirm Password:
[✓] New password set

3.1.2. Launch

Launch the the Pi-hole interface
UI
```
http://p-ubuntu-nas:8082/admin
```
Configure

3.2. Configure Router

3.2.1. DNS Settings

The DNS configuration in the router needs to point to the IP address of the server hosting the docker Pi-hole container.
Typically, this is already set to your internet service provider’s DNS servers, but it should be updated with the IP address of the server that hosts Pi-hole container.
Configure the router to use the Pi-hole server as the Primary DNS server.
Leave the Secondary DNS blank.
Reference doc is here

1	This is the router’s IP address. We’ll hard-code this for now until `Pi-hole` is configured as the DHCP server.
2	Google Public DNS.