Hello! You all have always been a great help to me.. Well, a while ago I asked if there was an advantage to running 2piholes on my network,and a bunch of you guys said yes.
My questions are, what and how should I set the second? I have the first running DNS and DHCP. I am thinking, just set the second to DNS only? What other settings would be good to include on the second server?
Thanks a ton as always,
D
You can use the second Pi to serve a subset of your network. Assign it a static address, and manually point selected clients to it. Some users do this to create a kid-friendly internet filter. The second Pi could have more block lists to remove adult content, etc., and you could configure it's upstream DNS servers to one of the filtered DNS providers.
Another easy option if you just want redundancy is to move the DCHP function back to the router, give the second Pi a static address, list it as the second DNS IP on the router. Then the two Pi's run in parallel (how much load is distributed is dependent on your network and router). If either fails, the second automatically takes over. If you do this you will typically want to run the same block lists on both Pi's, and synchronize the white and black lists at some periodicity. Sync can be done via teleport.
A third option some users choose is to have each Pi serve DHCP, but set their DHCP ranges so they don't overlap.
Thank you. I currently have them running in redundancy mode. I will have to check the DNS lists. I have the shop running through the main one. But I may run it through both, as you suggested, splitting the loads. But it seems fast this way. But it may be even faster splitting, as the load is split between the two...
I will play with it.. Lol.. Thanks a ton!
And I found how to look up the threads.. Lol, and I saw you run 3am a few extra pi lying around(and a beaglebone. But that had never been useful for anything at all). I may at up a third... He he he
Load splitting might not result in what you expect (an even balance), depending on your network configuration. With Apple routers in use, my primary pihole gets 99% of the traffic, and less than 1% goes to the secondary Pi-Hole (and that's primarily one IOT device that found the second Pi-Hole and stuck to it).
Load balance should not be an issue anyway, since even a low powered Pi (Zero) can easily handle a home network by itself.
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