Help configuring Pi-hole as local DNS server without using its DHCP (using Kea DHCP instead)

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1

Hi everyone,

I need help configuring Pi-hole to continue acting as a local DNS server without enabling its DHCP server.

In my setup:

  • I'm using Kea DHCP as my DHCP server.
  • My local domain is properly defined in Kea (e.g., home.local).
  • Pi-hole has a static IP address that is within the IP range managed by Kea.
  • I want Pi-hole to correctly resolve local hostnames (provided via Kea) and still function as the main DNS server for all clients on the network.

What’s the best way to make Pi-hole aware of the hostnames and IPs provided by Kea, without using Pi-hole’s built-in DHCP?

Any advice on how to set this up correctly is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

2

You should note that .local is the TLD reserved for the mDNS protocol, and should not be used with plain DNS.

That's what Pi-hole's Conditional Forwarding is for.
It is available in Expert mode only, and you'll find that section at Settings | DNS.

This will only work if KEA would inject hostnames in a co-located internal DNS server.

You can verify if that's the case by querying your KEA's IP for a hostname you expect it to know, e.g.

nslookup <hostname> <KEA.IP>

Substitute <hostname> and <KEA.IP> as required.