How to handle DNS on Pi-hole, DHCP on router and also resolve local hostnames

[Ionut_Baban]

Hi

I don't have much network knowledge, but I would like to

1. keep DHCP on the router, EdgeRouter X

2. keep DNS on the Pi-hole

3. be able to resolve local hostnames

Up until now I had been using the same setup, but Pi-hole is showing IPs, while most of devices have hostnames defined in the router's DHCP server.

I don't want to use the Pi-hole's DHCP server, as if it goes down, I risk having issues.
I've been reading a lot of articles about how to achieve this, but it's still not clear what I need to do.
Is there a more specific guide on how to configure this in Pi-hole?

• https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/dhcp-settings-on-router/6127
• https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-show-hostnames-instead-of-ip-addresses-in-the-dashboard/3530
• https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/assign-alias-to-ip-numbers-for-easier-identification/1488
• https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/8spvq1/resolve_local_hostnames_and_use_pihole_for/

Thanks<
Ionut

[lupinehorror]

this is my set up. i put local hostnames in /etc/hosts on the device running the pi-hole, still use my router for DHCP..
hope i'm understanding correctly.

[Ionut_Baban]

Ok, thanks, I'll try that.
I was thinking there is another way, as I'm already maintaining names in the router's DHCP server.

[deHakkelaar]

Try run below nslookup on a client (Linux, Windows or MacOS) or on Pi-hole where in my case, 10.0.0.220 is a known client with an active DHCP lease (my laptop) and 10.0.0.2 is my DHCP server:

C:\>nslookup 10.0.0.220 10.0.0.2
Server:  ph5a.home.dehakkelaar.nl
Address:  10.0.0.2

Name:    laptop.home.dehakkelaar.nl
Address:  10.0.0.220

If that resolves to a name properly, you can configure Conditional Forwarding in the Pi-hole DNS settings to get those IP's resolved to names or names to IP's and also in the GUI:

The Local domain name field you'll have to lookup in your DHCP server settings.

EDIT: added "active DHCP lease".

[jfb]

@Ionut_Baban

I don't want to use the Pi-hole's DHCP server, as if it goes down, I risk having issues.

If Pi-hole goes down you have bigger issues. There isn't much risk here.

[Ionut_Baban]

@deHakkelaar

Conditional Forwarding

Yes, this worked for me.
The router was able too lookup the IPs and once I enabled the Conditional Forwarding Pi-hole was able to lookup too.