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Pi-hole in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

Last updated on 20 February 2025

Important or Recent Updates
Historic UpdatesDate
Updated guide for Container Manager and using Macvlan14/05/2023
Added a new section to ensure DSM continues having network access.02/06/2023
Guide updated so you can choose between Macvlan or Bridge mode12/08/2023
Added additional security option to the compose to restrict the container from gaining new privileges25/10/2023
Fixed issues I introduced with the recent changes in my mission to make things more secure. It was so secure I broke it!
Added the appropriate permissions/capabilities at start up for the container.
29/10/2023
Removed the requirement for the synobridge as this container can just use its own bridge, and added the Host network mode, so all three are a choice.28/01/2024
Removed the WEB_UID and WEB_GID from the config to avoid issues with ID’s conflicting inside the container. I will update again once I have some time to work around this.03/04/2024
Some minor amends to sync up the information across this guide and the AdGuard one01/08/2024
Removed two unneeded capabilities from the bridge version of the docker compose as they are not required.16/11/2024
Guide updated for the all new v6 of Pi-hole (Note if you upgrade from v5 you effectively have to change all the compose settings in line with the new guide so might be worth just scrapping and starting fresh unless you really need stats etc

Please note as recommended by the Pi-hole dev team I have added a Watchtower exclusion label to the compose so you can do manual updates. Automated ones could result in you losing internet access if a bad update takes place.
20/02/2025
Historic Updates

What is Pi-hole?

If you are looking to get advertising and tracking blocked across all the devices on your network a Pi-hole will have you covered. It’s a locally hosted Domain Name Server and uses block lists to stop adverts.

This guide will get you set up with Pi-hole and cover some basic initial settings, I recommend checking out the documentation for all the various features available.

Host vs Macvlan vs Bridge Network Modes

Host:

Host mode uses your NAS underlying network to run the containers network services, so it will be reliant on the NAS not using any of the required ports for the container. However, this makes it easy to set up, but you need to make sure no other service is using the required ports. All your clients will appear correctly as independent devices and stats.

Macvlan:

This gives you the benefit of Pi-hole having its own IP address on your network, all clients appear with their real IP addresses allowing you to assign specific rules and give you some nicer stats. However, one downside is that your NAS will not be able to use Pi-hole for DNS, due to the additional security features of Macvlan and its communication with its host. This is generally not an issue unless you wanted to use your Ad blocking with Tailscale.

Please note you will not be able to use Macvlan with a Bonded network connection e.g. ‘Bond0’. You will need to remove the bond in order to use this method.

Bridge Mode:

The main benefit of Bridge Mode will be the ease of setup however you will find that all clients on your network will appear under the same IP as the Bridge 172.20.0.1. This won’t impact ad blocking, but it will mean you can apply device specific rules etc.

Let’s Begin

In order for you to successfully use this guide you will need to check that your Router allows you to change your network DNS servers, this is usually found in the DHCP settings.

Please follow the initial guide below to get a restricted Docker user set up, then come back here.

Folder Setup

Let’s start by getting some folders set up for the container to use. Open up File Station create the following.

Folders
/docker/projects/pihole-compose
/docker/pihole

Container Manager

Next we are going to set up a ‘Project’ in Container Manager. Open up Container Manager and click on Project then on the right-hand side click ‘Create’.

In the next screen we will set up our General Settings.

In the next screen we will set up our General Settings, enter the following:

SectionSetting
Project Name:pihole
Path:/docker/projects/pihole-compose
Source:Create docker-compose.yml

Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration. You now need to decide if you are going to go with Macvlan or Bridge Mode and copy the appropriate compose from below and paste it into line ‘1’ just like the screenshot.

What on earth is a Docker Compose?
Docker Compose allows us to define how Docker should set up one or more containers within a single configuration file. This file is yaml formatted and Container Manager uses the Projects feature to manage them.

Host

YAML
services:
  pihole:
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    container_name: pihole-host
    cap_add:
      - CAP_NET_RAW
      - CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
      - CAP_CHOWN
      - CAP_NET_ADMIN
      - CAP_SYS_NICE
      - CAP_SYS_TIME
    environment:
      - PIHOLE_UID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - PIHOLE_GID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
      - FTLCONF_webserver_api_password=YOURPASSWORD
      - FTLCONF_webserver_port=8000
      - DNSMASQ_LISTENING=local
      - DNSMASQ_USER=pihole
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/pihole:/etc/pihole
    network_mode: host
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=false
    restart: unless-stopped

Macvlan

YAML
services:
  pihole:
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    container_name: pihole-macvlan
    cap_add:
      - CAP_NET_RAW
      - CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
      - CAP_CHOWN
      - CAP_NET_ADMIN
      - CAP_SYS_NICE
      - CAP_SYS_TIME
    environment:
      - PIHOLE_UID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - PIHOLE_GID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
      - FTLCONF_webserver_api_password=YOURPASSWORD
      - DNSMASQ_LISTENING=local
      - DNSMASQ_USER=pihole
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/pihole:/etc/pihole
    networks:
      macvlan:
        ipv4_address: 192.168.0.129
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=false
    restart: always

networks:
  macvlan:
    name: macvlan
    driver: macvlan
    driver_opts:
      parent: eth0
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: "192.168.0.0/24"
          ip_range: "192.168.0.254/24"
          gateway: "192.168.0.1"

Bridge Mode

YAML
services:
  pihole:
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    container_name: pihole-bridge
    cap_add:
      - CAP_NET_RAW
      - CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
      - CAP_CHOWN
      - CAP_NET_ADMIN
      - CAP_SYS_NICE
      - CAP_SYS_TIME
    environment:
      - PIHOLE_UID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - PIHOLE_GID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
      - FTLCONF_webserver_api_password=YOURPASSWORD
      - FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode=all
      - DNSMASQ_USER=pihole
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/pihole:/etc/pihole
    ports:
      - 53:53/udp
      - 8000:80/tcp
      - 8443:443/tcp
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=false
    restart: unless-stopped

We are now changing some settings this applies to all versions of the YAML above.

SectionExplanation
PIHOLE_UID=This UID is the one you obtained when setting up your dockerlimited user in the earlier guide at the start of the page. This tells Pi-hole to run under this user rather than root and gives it access to the folders we created.
PIHOLE_GID=As per the above this line will be the GID you obtained earlier.
TZ=You will need to change this line to your own timezone code – you can find the correct list of ones to use on wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
FTLCONF_webserver_
api_password=
Change this to the password you would like to use for the Web UI

OK you now need to jump to an appropriate section of the guide for the network mode you have used. Use the links below.

  • Macvlan (Settings Amendments for the Macvlan)
  • Host (Settings Amendments for the Host Mode)
  • Bridge (Web Portal Settings)

Settings Amendments for the Macvlan

OK we now need to make some further edits to the compose and sort out DNS for DSM

External DNS for DSM

Containers on a Macvlan cannot be accessed by the host they reside on (without network changes under the hood), this mean DSM cannot use Pi-hole for its own DNS requests. It’s better to put DSM on an external DNS provider to avoid it having any issues connecting to the Internet if your Pi-hole is down.

Go into the DSM Control Panel > Network and then in the ‘Manually configure DNS server’ set two good quality DNS providers such as Quad9 9.9.9.9 and Cloudflare1.1.1.1

Now you can make some edits to the compose information before moving on

SectionExplanation
ipv4_address: 192.168.0.122Change to the IP address you want to use for the container. Make sure this is available and not in use by another device on your network. Don’t forget to go back up and change line 15.
parent: eth0This defines the network interface the container should use, I have used eth0 which will be the first Ethernet port on your NAS. If you want to use a different port change it accordingly.

Note! If you have Virtual Machine Manager installed change this to ovs_eth0
subnet: “192.168.0.0/24”We need to change this in line with your networks’ subnet – in the example I have used 192.168.0.0/24. The super quick way to work out what to use is just take the IP of your NAS and change the final digit before the /24 to 0
ip_range: “192.168.0.254/24”This has to be changed to the highest available IP address within the range of your subnet. Again if your network is in the 192 range the final number used from the subnet above can be changed to 254 and added to this section.
gateway: “192.168.0.1”This will be the IP address of your Router/Gateway/DHCP Server

You can now jump ahead to the Web portal settings

Settings Amendments for the Host Mode

In earlier versions of the Pi-hole docker container you amended the port the Web UI was available on with WEB_PORT, this doesn’t exist in new versions, and it is expected for you to edit the config file. However, there is a new variable which is not in the new installation documentation.

SectionExplanation
FTLCONF_webserver_portI have used port 8000 as the default you can amend this if you wish, if you do amend the port keep this in mind when you access the UI later.

Web portal settings

You do not need to enable anything on the ‘Web portal settings’ screen click ‘Next’ again.

On the final screen click ‘Done’ which will begin the download of the container images and once downloaded they will be launched!

The image will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.

You will now see your Pi-hole running and should have a green status on the left-hand side.

Accessing the Web UI

The web interface will now be available via the following methods. If you use the https address you will need to accept the self-signed certificate warning in your browser.

Network ModeAccess method
Macvlanhttp://macvlanIP/admin
https://macvlanIP/admin
Bridgehttp://nasIP:8000/admin
https://nasIP:8443/admin
Hosthttp://nasIP:8000/admin

You can access the UI with the password you specified in the compose.

Update your Router DNS

Now you need to add the appropriate IP address to your router depending on which method you used to set up Pi-hole

Bridge or Host = Use your NAS IP address.

Macvlan = The address you chose for the container on the line ‘ipv4_address:’

It can take some time for all of your devices to move over the new DNS settings so be patient, and you will gradually start to see your stats begin to start.

Also note as we are not using Pi-hole as the DHCP server you will not be able to see the names of the devices in the statistics just their IP addresses.

That’s it!


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Published inAd-Blocking / DNS 7.2DockerSynology

154 Comments

  1. David David

    Hi ! just FYI

    After a LOT of struggle with trying to use macvlan and always coming to the same error at the end: “Cannot create macvlan: device or resource busy”. The magic was in the network interface used. When i used parent: ovs_eth0 everything works as a charm. Pihole V6 running in docker on his own ip address.

    David.

  2. czee czee

    For some reasons my pi-hole is not stopping adverts on mobile apps, note I have andriod with private DNS already disabled in phone and current pihole setup running via a bridge

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hi check in your WiFi details that it’s using your nas IP for the DNS settings. If you have only just set this up you can force a dhcp update by disconnecting and reconnecting to WiFi

  3. João João

    Hi there,

    Pi-hole V6 has been launched, will this guide still work? I have installed it again, i got pi-hole v5 still, how can i upgrade?

    Thanks

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hey see my note at the top of the guide I am on holiday so will make the changes when back.

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