What's the best way to run Pi-Hole?
- Thread starter Fritz
- Start date
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Depends on what flavor you like 
At the moment I run 2 x Wyse 5060 thin clients that cost $15 each so that I can run pihole in HA and it is up 100% of the time no matter what I'm messing with in my network.
I've also run it as a docker, and as a guest vm, and even an lxc container on proxmox. They all work flawlessly
At the moment I run 2 x Wyse 5060 thin clients that cost $15 each so that I can run pihole in HA and it is up 100% of the time no matter what I'm messing with in my network.
I've also run it as a docker, and as a guest vm, and even an lxc container on proxmox. They all work flawlessly
I run mine on a Raspberry Pi, a 3b+. I wanted something low power usage and silent. I have a few Pi's laying around (and a configured sd card) so if it dies I can be back up and going in a few minutes. I also run unbound (resolving, not forwarding) on the same Pi, plenty powerful for that. Like @zer0sum I don't want DNS resolution dependent on something that may need to be taken down or rebooted. Of course you can run two, but that makes analyzing the logs a bit more complicated if you care about such things.
Sorry. High Availability
So one of my piholes is the primary and the configuration is synched to the secondary, then I use keepalived to have a virtual IP address that is shared between them. I can upgrade and reboot one of them and the other one just takes over instantly
Really easy to set up - Pi-hole failover using Gravity Sync and Keepalived - David's Homelab
I also do all of the following after installing pihole the first time
Install unbound for recursive queries so your requests go straight to the root dns servers and not 3rd parties
unbound - Pi-hole documentation
Install whitelists and have them update via cron (WAF approval factor x1000)
GitHub - anudeepND/whitelist: A simple tool to add commonly white listed domains to your Pi-Hole setup.
A simple tool to add commonly white listed domains to your Pi-Hole setup. - GitHub - anudeepND/whitelist: A simple tool to add commonly white listed domains to your Pi-Hole setup.
github.com
Add this to crontab as well to update referral sites: 0 2 * * */7 root /opt/whitelist/scripts/referral.py
Create cron scripts to update a set of curated blocklists daily
GitHub - LoganBresnahan/pihole_cron_scripts
Contribute to LoganBresnahan/pihole_cron_scripts development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
I also add this one manually - https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/lists/tracking-aggressive-extended.txt
Pretty much why I went with thin clients instead
A HP T620 would work perfectly as well, and they are cheap
Pretty much any thin client will work and it's easy to find ones with the quad core amd cpu's like these - (415ga,424cc) in Computer Enterprise Networking Servers: Search Result | eBay
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Yea, just grabbed another think client off eBay. Not sure if it will work but it's only 14 bucks delivered.Pretty much why I went with thin clients instead
A HP T620 would work perfectly as well, and they are cheap
Pretty much any thin client will work and it's easy to find ones with the quad core amd cpu's like these - (415ga,424cc) in Computer Enterprise Networking Servers: Search Result | eBay
Search eBay for -
Dell Wyse Tx0 T10 1GR DVI Thin Client 909566-01L
I'd be a bit wary of that one as it just has a crappy 1Ghz Marvell cpu though I think
If you can stretch to $40 or so then you start getting your choice of Intel or AMD dual or quad core systems
I have a couple of old Khadas VIM1 boards unused. Going to try to flash one or two with either Ubuntu or Armbian and see how it goes.
RasPi boards are way too expensive now. 2-3 times the original cost.
Currently running Pi-Hole as ESXi VM (perfectly fine) but want to get rid of the hypervisor cluster and move pi-hole into a dedicated low-power box.
RasPi boards are way too expensive now. 2-3 times the original cost.
Currently running Pi-Hole as ESXi VM (perfectly fine) but want to get rid of the hypervisor cluster and move pi-hole into a dedicated low-power box.
I have a Dell Wyse 5060 that's currently serving a purpose. I might just have to use it and find a replacement. Wish I had grabbed a few more of the 5060's. Didn't realize what a deal they were.
I also have a Moderro I'm using as a HTPC. Don't remember the specs but it runs Windows 10 like a champ.
I also have a Moderro I'm using as a HTPC. Don't remember the specs but it runs Windows 10 like a champ.
update:
My old DIY all-(consumer)SSD 3-node vSAN crashed and burned without notice and took my old pi-hole with it.
I don't have much spare time (nor any interest) to bring vsan back to life. Instead, I went with the plan above making my old Khadas VIM1 board (Amlogic S905x/2gb ram, 16GB emmc flash,100Mbps ethernet - yes, not a gig, but DNS server even 100 is plenty)
Originally I went with a USB Flasher tool to burn ubuntu directly to eMMC storage. the process went ok, but after OS (ubuntu 18.04) loaded, I couldn't get past apt upgrade - as a few times on their own distro were different sizes.
If I can't use apt update/upgrade - for me it's a broken distro and time to move on.
Time for plan B: I got a newer Ubuntu 20.04 image which was meant to be booted only from SD/USB. My SD card is painfully slow, no matter. Grabbed the ubuntu image and burned it on SD with Etcher (free). Booted my VIM1 with it and then burned it to eMMC using "emmc-install" program which was included. After that removed the old SD and it booted and works fine from eMMC.
linux:vim3:writesdimagetoemmc.html [Khadas Docs]
Page Not Found - 404 - dl.khadas.com
I know this board is a pretty small niche, but my experience may help someone.
Khadas VIM Ubuntu 20.04 doesn't use NetPlan for some reason. nmcli did the trick:
How to Configure Static IP Address in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Tutorial on how to configure static ip address in Ubuntu 22.04 desktop. Nmcli command and network icon from desktop screen is used to configure static ip.
www.linuxtechi.com
After that Pi-Hole was installed right away and I got lucky and found a bit older, but still a very valid Teleporter backup from old Pi-Hole, so nothing lost!!
Install a supported version of Linux and then just run this single command
Code:
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash
Code:
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | PIHOLE_SKIP_OS_CHECK=true bashThe TX0 is a different box. It has nothing that can be removed or replaced on the inside so I guess it won't work.
TX0 isn't it very similar to Wyze 3010 or T50 ?The TX0 is a different box. It has nothing that can be removed or replaced on the inside so I guess it won't work.
Nope. Judging by the above video it's a different animal. But the exterior is very similar.
Forget the video. It is for Cx0 models. 3010 and T50 are based on the same Marvel Armada ARM cpu.
My point is they already running a type of Ubuntu. as long as you get the SSH access - you could run Pi-Hole on it
I was referring to the interior pics. They show several removable components. The one I have has nothing that isn't soldiered downForget the video. It is for Cx0 models. 3010 and T50 are based on the same Marvel Armada ARM cpu.
My point is they already running a type of Ubuntu. as long as you get the SSH access - you could run Pi-Hole on it