Last updated on 27 February 2025
Important or Recent Updates
| Historic Updates | Date |
|---|---|
| Updated guide for Container Manager and using Macvlan | 14/05/2023 |
| Added a new section to ensure DSM continues having network access. | 02/06/2023 |
| Guide updated so you can choose between Macvlan or Bridge mode | 12/08/2023 |
| Added additional security option to the compose to restrict the container from gaining new privileges | 25/10/2023 |
| 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 one | 01/08/2024 |
| 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. Edited again today as I left in a variable that is not required in Host and Macvlan mode “DNSMASQ_LISTENING” sorry. | 20/02/2025 |
| Had a rethink of the Guide, and it has been rewritten to include an overdue request of including Unbound! | 24/02/2025 |
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.
What is Unbound (Optional)
Unbound is a validating, recursive, caching DNS resolver. Rather than using an upstream DNS provider such as Google or Cloudflare who will look up the IP addresses for domain names you visit Unbound does this for you. It queries root servers for the address for a website. For example when you visited this site its actually on the server 213.186.33.50. This adds a layer of privacy in your web browsing as you are not relying on a third party with this information.
Host vs Bridge vs Macvlan Network Modes
You need to decide which mode of Networking you want to use, I have outlined the key points below in general order of preference. (Unbound will be on a bridge which has no impact on your choice)
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.
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.
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.
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.
/docker/projects/pihole-compose
/docker/pihole
/docker/unbound #Optional
Unbound Configuration (Optional)
We need to make a config file for Unbound to define its network settings.
Download the file below and put it into the “unbound” folder we created earlier
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, enter the following:
| Section | Setting |
|---|---|
| Project Name: | pihole |
| Path: | /docker/projects/pihole-compose |
| Source: | Create docker-compose.yml |
The code section of the below will be blank until we move to the next step.
Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration. You now need to decide if you are going to go with Host, Bridge Mode or Macvlan. Jump to the appropriate page to follow the setup.
Host – Page 2
Bridge – Page 3
Macvlan – Page 4
Thank you for these guides! I’m brand new to synology and these are showing me what is possible and making it super easy! I followed the Initial Setup guide and then went to install pihole. I followed all of the directions and was hit with error “failed to create the macvlan port device or resource busy Error 1”. I’m using port aggregation if that matters. Any help to get this going would be appreciated.
Hey thanks for the feedback always good to hear 🙂
So you need to do an extra step to get the name of your network device. It’s very likely ‘bond0’,
SSH into your NAS and run the command ‘ifconfig’ on the list of devices / connections look for one referencing the bond and use that name in the compose. If you get stuck reach out via my contact page / Discord / Matrix
I think I may have missed something, I made sure I followed all the settings in YAML file but I cannot seem to access via webgui, what could I be missing? Line 15 and 22 are the same IP and I have double checked line 33 – 35. I get a failed to open page. I did follow the synbridge/docker limited guide first.
Hey could you drop me a copy of your yaml https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk then reply with the URL it gives you here
Sent, thank you for looking at the issue.
OK looks OK – Anything in the logs to suggest any errors at all?
https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk/?7013dab5d61c5a66#AMXfSpKULzM47cZbz5wBbXZfvE51YjkoDXiFFju7J62D
OK also look perfect!
Can you access via
http://10.11.14.250:8000/admin/login.php
Also is your router showing that it has successfully attached to the IP you have given it?
https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk/?3f9da147b448a915#FjBwko9k1cscmAzgr6YDE4RfMDpgPw86zzqEFHKY85UN
Ah that works! My apologies, I guess I have to put in the full URL:
http://10.11.14.250:8000/admin/login.php
Thank you!
No need to apologise – looks like when I did the guide my browser auto-redirected. I will put the full URL in the guide.
It is likely obvious to everyone else, but I missed editing line 11. Would you consider adding Line 11 (enter your own password) under the heading “Settings Amendments for the MacVLAN”?
100% I have now added.
Thank you. Your instructions and website are absolutely BRILLIANT! I can’t get over how easy it is to use Container Manager and your yml files to deploy containers. Thank you so very, very much for sharing your brilliant work.
Hey,
I’ve been following your guides for setting up jellyfin and radarr, and I’ve encountered an issue.
After I setup jellyfin, I set up pihole on a raspberry pi. It’s working well, and I’ve configured it so that the address to my media server routes to a local address when on the network.
The issue I’ve encountered is that when I attempted to install radarr on docker, Docker times out – it seems unable to reach the docker hub while pi hole is acting as dns and dhcp.
Is this something you’ve encountered, or do you have any suggestions on how I can resolve this?
Hey
I personally allow the NAS direct access to a couple of decent DNS providers to avoid any issues as I trust it to not be serving up ads etc. Quad 9 (9.9.9.9) and Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or other Provider such as OpenDNS (208.67.222.222) Set this directly in the Network settings.
That should resolve things.
How can I get my other container to reach the MacVLAN?
I am going to do some further research as everything I have found so far is quite complex from a normal user perspective generally. Keep an eye on the guide updates and I will also reply here again when I have something working well.