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
Tried to set this up using the macvlan network.
Container is up and running and I can see it in my router network map on the IP that I set it to use, but when I try and browse to :8000/admin/login.php I get an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED response.
Hey Joe, can you check the Pi-hole logs to see if anything has gone wrong in the start up.
Doesn’t seem to be.
Opened up a terminal to the pihole container in container manager and did;
root@620728c96d7e:/# pihole version
Pi-hole version is v5.18.2 (Latest: v5.18.2)
web version is v5.21 (Latest: v5.21)
FTL version is v5.25.2 (Latest: v5.25.2)
root@620728c96d7e:/# pihole status
[✓] FTL is listening on port 53
[✓] UDP (IPv4)
[✓] TCP (IPv4)
[✓] UDP (IPv6)
[✓] TCP (IPv6)
[✓] Pi-hole blocking is enabled
And I can’t see anything obvious in the container logs;
https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk/?5e18c696b5724734#A6FQuenvHERy1CCEUNJBYC1iSwPqQiy9i19UdUmhtAYG
Ah scratch that it seems to be working now.
Changed the local IP for the pihole container and it seems happy with that. Maybe I was using an IP that was already in use or something!
OK nice one glad its working now!
Thanks for this guide. Very useful!
Hi, I have used all of your excellent guides. On BT internet Pihole has to be used for DHCP. Use of another router is not an option for landline customers which I am. This seems to cause some issues. Two errors:
1. Warning in dmasq core:
working around kernel bug: faulty source address scope for VRF slave eth0
2. Warning in dmasq core:
no address range available for DHCP request via eth0
Hey so run the container in Host Mode from the guide which will give it all the ports it requires for DHCP services, let me know if the errors persist.
You definitely can use a custom router with BT VDSL (landline).
PPPoE
VLAN ID: 101
MTU: 1492
username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com
pw: bt
Odd issue… I executed the host script, but it seems to ignore WEB_PORT=8000 and always wants to start pihole on port 80.
I wonder if it’s a bug, as it should move to 8000 based on the YAML and nothing has changed documentation wise for setting the web port.
I tried following this guide but kept getting errors that DNSMASQ_USER needed to be root and that it could not start
It should be running with the DNSMASQ user running as root I believe as I removed the UID/GID for that user so just pihole itself runs as our docker user
I’m setting this up as a backup to my primary Pi-hole setup running on a Raspberry Pi. Will I be able to import my adlists, blacklists, whitelists, etc to this Docker Pi-hole via Teleporter?
Yes definitely!
Thanks!
Everything was working perfectly for a couple days, and now I’m getting an error almost every time I go to the “Domains” tab on the web GUI: “DataTables warning: table id=domainsTable – Invalid JSON response.”
I’ve rebuilt the docker container a couple times, I’ve cleared my browser cache… no luck. I don’t have any issues with my Raspi instance, so it’s something with my Docker/Synology setup. Any ideas?
This could be a permission issue, I have seen this once before and trying to find the thread where we fixed it. I can’t remember if it was a permission issue or not. Will reply again once I find it!
Thanks so much. I think I resolved it. It seemed to be a conflict caused by having the same UID and GID values for PIHOLE and WEB. More here: https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole/blob/f044e58b5cf9a2cdadf947d8577065285959feef/README.md#experimental-variables
I deleted the WEB_UID and WEB_GID variables from my compose file and rebuilt the container. So far so good. But I’m not sure if it’s ideal to eliminate the WEB_UID and WEB_GID entries.
Well that seems new! However, it has been noted for 2 years! Bizarre as I feel like I have read through the config options hundreds of times! Well I will get that changed, you should be good on removing them.