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
Have you got an extension to this that uses a “cloudflared” container to use DNS-over-HTTPS ?
Hey Howler – Unfortunately it’s not something I have set up – I am extremely limited in time currently so pausing new guides currently as the existing ones plus discord eat a lot of support time.
hi there when i click create project i get the error “failed to create macvlan port: device or resource busy”. nothing shows up in the logs besides that same error
Hi billy – It may be you already have the MACVLAN created – In the Networks section of Container Manager delete any existing MACVLAN (assuming its not in use)
Thank you for your documentation. It works great. But is there a way to enable ipv6 with this setup? It is disabled by default on the NAS. And everything i tried failed.
I am going to be completely honest – I have nothing IPv6 across my network stack or from my ISP so it’s not something I have even tried.
My basic understanding is that if you have IPv6 enabled on your router so it is giving out DHCP v6 addresses then enable ipv6 on the NAS and you should then be able to do v6 DNS.
Greetings.
I spun up a piHole following your guid using the macvlan configuration but none of the clients are coming in as their own IPs, they all seem to be coming in under the routers IP and its been a few hours now.
Also, Is there any additional configurations that are required for multiple subnets? For example, if someone has a “guest” and “Iot” subnet for example?
Thanks!
I have seen this a few times, and it’s when your router is not passing the DNS requests directly to the Pi-hole, its forwarding them! This can’t be changed unless you change to using the Pi-hole to be your DHCP server.
https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/why-do-i-only-see-my-routers-ip-address-instead-of-individual-devices-in-the-top-clients-section-and-query-log/3653
An alternative is to see if Conditional forwarding in the settings makes any difference.
thank you very much for this manual.
I did check my config more times but not able to find solution to my problem.
After I restart container {or synology restart because update} pihole is starting as from begining {I need to configure Interface settings to “Permit all origins” after each restart} and another problem is that I dont see any long term statistics.
this is my volume config in docker compose
/volume1/docker/pihole:/etc/pihole
I did check persmisions and are ok,.
Changes made in web in settings -> dns are saved to /volume1/docker/pihole/setupVars.conf and /volume1/docker/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf without problem
any idea ? thanks
Hey Jano
This must be a permissions issue, try running the following commands via SSH, you wont see any output but it grants the docker user full permissions to the required folder (I assume this is on volume1)
sudo chown -R dockerlimited:dockergroup /volume1/docker/pihole
sudo chmod -R a=,a+rX,u+w,g+w /volume1/docker/pihole
I did check that several times, anyway, I did stop container, run your command, remove pihole-FTL.db {because it has cca 22K} and started container.
same problem, I had to correct settings for interface, otherwise it will not resolve for another vlans. AND again db is small and there are plenty errors in log “SQLite3 message: no such table: network_addresses in “SELECT interface FROM network JOIN network_addresses ON network_addresses.network_id = network.id WHERE network_addresses.ip = ? AND interface != ‘N/A’ AND interface IS NOT (1)”
[/SNIP]
Its odd that you are still getting permission issues – Can you stop the project, then completely delete the whole /docker/pihole folder. Create it again using File Station and then right click on the /pihole folder and change it to the dockerlimited user as the owner.. Then start the project again.
i can confirm that this fixed my issue that was the same. Might be worth adding in to the descriptions above
OK perfect – I will pop in the FAQ