Pi-hole docker setup (hostnames and internal docker IPs)

Hello everyone,

first of all thanks to the developers of Pi-hole for creating such a great tool. You're doing an awesome job!
Now to my question:
I try to use Pi-hole in a docker container together with unbound (also running in a docker container) and so far it basically works; but I believe my setup is not completely sound and could be improved. I don't have a lot of docker and networking experience so I am a little stuck.
I looked at many other posts already but could not find a solution to the issue I have.

The issue(s):

  1. All requests coming from internal docker networks (currently only the docker host) show an IP in the web interface. How can I adjust my configuration so that I see hostnames instead of IPs. I know I could use the "Local DNS records" feature but after container restarts these internal docker IPs could change and I would need to update these entries again. For devices on the physical network I see hostnames just fine using the conditional forwarding to my router (DHCP).
  2. It seems like my docker host does not cache answers to DNS requests it made. In the pihole web interface I often see multiple requests for the same domain just a second or two apart. Is this normal behavior?
  3. Furthermore all requests from other docker containers show up as coming from the docker host's IP which makes sense regarding my configuration but I wonder if and how this could be adjusted so that I can see which docker container a DNS request originates from. This has a rather low importance for me though and it's fine if it is not feasible.

My setup:

  1. My router and DHCP: 192.168.178.1
    • DHCP DNS: 192.168.178.5
    • Router is configured to use 8.8.8.8 as upstream
  2. My docker host: 192.168.178.5
    • Is running pihole and unbound in docker containers using a custom bridge network (see below)
Docker compose file for pihole and unbound
services:
  pihole:
    depends_on:
      - unbound
    container_name: pihole
    image: pihole/pihole:2024.03.2
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "192.168.178.5:53:53/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"
    volumes:
      - "etc:/etc/pihole"
      - "dnsmasq:/etc/dnsmasq.d"
    secrets:
      - webpassword
    healthcheck:
      test: "dig +short +norecurse +retry=0 @unbound pi.hole || exit 1"
      interval: 5m
      timeout: 30s
      start_period: 45s
      start_interval: 15s
      retries: 3
    environment:
      DNSMASQ_LISTENING: all
      FTLCONF_LOCAL_IPV4: 192.168.178.5
      PIHOLE_DNS_: unbound
      REV_SERVER: true
      REV_SERVER_CIDR: 192.168.178.0/24
      REV_SERVER_DOMAIN: fritz.box
      REV_SERVER_TARGET: 192.168.178.1
      SKIPGRAVITYONBOOT: 1
      TZ: Europe/Berlin
      WEBPASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/webpassword
      WEBTHEME: default-dark

  unbound:
    container_name: unbound
    image: mvance/unbound-rpi:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - "./unbound.conf:/opt/unbound/etc/unbound/unbound.conf:ro"
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    healthcheck:
      test: "drill @127.0.0.1 google.com || exit 1"
      interval: 5m
      timeout: 30s
      start_period: 45s
      start_interval: 15s
      retries: 3

volumes:
  etc:
  dnsmasq:

secrets:
  webpassword:
    environment: WEBPASSWORD
unbound.conf
server:
    ###########################################################################
    # BASIC SETTINGS
    ###########################################################################
    # Time to live maximum for RRsets and messages in the cache. If the maximum
    # kicks in, responses to clients still get decrementing TTLs based on the
    # original (larger) values. When the internal TTL expires, the cache item
    # has expired. Can be set lower to force the resolver to query for data
    # often, and not trust (very large) TTL values.
    #cache-max-ttl: 86400

    # Time to live minimum for RRsets and messages in the cache. If the minimum
    # kicks in, the data is cached for longer than the domain owner intended,
    # and thus less queries are made to look up the data. Zero makes sure the
    # data in the cache is as the domain owner intended, higher values,
    # especially more than an hour or so, can lead to trouble as the data in
    # the cache does not match up with the actual data any more.
    cache-min-ttl: 300

    # Set the working directory for the program.
    directory: "/opt/unbound/etc/unbound"

    # Enable or disable whether IPv4 queries are answered or issued.
    # Default: yes
    do-ip4: yes

    # Enable or disable whether IPv6 queries are answered or issued.
    # If disabled, queries are not answered on IPv6, and queries are not sent
    # on IPv6 to the internet nameservers. With this option you can disable the
    # IPv6 transport for sending DNS traffic, it does not impact the contents
    # of the DNS traffic, which may have IPv4 (A) and IPv6 (AAAA) addresses in
    # it.
    # Default: yes
    # May be set to yes if you have IPv6 connectivity
    do-ip6: no

    # Enable or disable whether TCP queries are answered or issued.
    # Default: yes
    do-tcp: yes

    # Enable or disable whether UDP queries are answered or issued.
    # Default: yes
    do-udp: yes

    # RFC 6891. Number  of bytes size to advertise as the EDNS reassembly buffer
    # size. This is the value put into  datagrams over UDP towards peers.
    # The actual buffer size is determined by msg-buffer-size (both for TCP and
    # UDP). Do not set higher than that value.
    # Default  is  1232 which is the DNS Flag Day 2020 recommendation.
    # Setting to 512 bypasses even the most stringent path MTU problems, but
    # is seen as extreme, since the amount of TCP fallback generated is
    # excessive (probably also for this resolver, consider tuning the outgoing
    # tcp number).
    edns-buffer-size: 1232

    # Listen to for queries from clients and answer from this network interface
    # and port.
    interface: 0.0.0.0
    # interface: ::0
    port: 53

    # If enabled, prefer IPv6 transport for sending DNS queries to internet
    # nameservers.
    # Default: yes
    # You want to leave this to no unless you have *native* IPv6. With 6to4 and
    # Terredo tunnels your web browser should favor IPv4 for the same reasons
    prefer-ip6: no

    # Rotates RRSet order in response (the pseudo-random number is taken from
    # the query ID, for speed and thread safety).
    #rrset-roundrobin: yes

    # Drop user  privileges after  binding the port.
    username: "_unbound"

    ###########################################################################
    # LOGGING
    ###########################################################################

    # Do not print log lines to inform about local zone actions
    log-local-actions: no

    # Do not print one line per query to the log
    log-queries: no

    # Do not print one line per reply to the log
    log-replies: no

    # Do not print log lines that say why queries return SERVFAIL to clients
    log-servfail: no

    # Set log location (using /dev/null further limits logging)
    #logfile: /dev/stdout
    use-syslog: no

    # Set logging level
    # Level 0: No verbosity, only errors.
    # Level 1: Gives operational information.
    # Level 2: Gives detailed operational information including short information per query.
    # Level 3: Gives query level information, output per query.
    # Level 4:  Gives algorithm level information.
    # Level 5: Logs client identification for cache misses.
    verbosity: 3

    ###########################################################################
    # PERFORMANCE SETTINGS
    ###########################################################################
    # https://nlnetlabs.nl/documentation/unbound/howto-optimise/
    # https://nlnetlabs.nl/news/2019/Feb/05/unbound-1.9.0-released/

    # Number of slabs in the infrastructure cache. Slabs reduce lock contention
    # by threads. Must be set to a power of 2.
    #infra-cache-slabs: 4

    # Number of incoming TCP buffers to allocate per thread. Default
    # is 10. If set to 0, or if do-tcp is "no", no  TCP  queries  from
    # clients  are  accepted. For larger installations increasing this
    # value is a good idea.
    #incoming-num-tcp: 10

    # Number of slabs in the key cache. Slabs reduce lock contention by
    # threads. Must be set to a power of 2. Setting (close) to the number
    # of cpus is a reasonable guess.
    #key-cache-slabs: 4

    # Number  of  bytes  size  of  the  message  cache.
    # Unbound recommendation is to Use roughly twice as much rrset cache memory
    # as you use msg cache memory.
    #msg-cache-size: 142768128

    # Number of slabs in the message cache. Slabs reduce lock contention by
    # threads. Must be set to a power of 2. Setting (close) to the number of
    # cpus is a reasonable guess.
    #msg-cache-slabs: 4

    # The number of queries that every thread will service simultaneously. If
    # more queries arrive that need servicing, and no queries can be jostled
    # out (see jostle-timeout), then the queries are dropped.
    # This is best set at half the number of the outgoing-range.
    # This Unbound instance was compiled with libevent so it can efficiently
    # use more than 1024 file descriptors.
    #num-queries-per-thread: 4096

    # The number of threads to create to serve clients.
    # This is set dynamically at run time to effectively use available CPUs
    # resources
    num-threads: 1

    # Number of ports to open. This number of file descriptors can be opened
    # per thread.
    # This Unbound instance was compiled with libevent so it can efficiently
    # use more than 1024 file descriptors.
    #outgoing-range: 8192

    # Number of bytes size of the RRset cache.
    # Use roughly twice as much rrset cache memory as msg cache memory
    #rrset-cache-size: 285536256

    # Number of slabs in the RRset cache. Slabs reduce lock contention by
    # threads. Must be set to a power of 2.
    #rrset-cache-slabs: 4

    # Do no insert authority/additional sections into response messages when
    # those sections are not required. This reduces response size
    # significantly, and may avoid TCP fallback for some responses. This may
    # cause a slight speedup.
    minimal-responses: yes

    # If yes, message cache elements are prefetched before they expire
    # to  keep  the  cache  up to date.  Default is no.  Turning it on
    # gives about 10 percent more traffic and load on the machine, but
    # popular items do not expire from the cache.
    prefetch: no

    # Fetch the DNSKEYs earlier in the validation process, when a DS record is
    # encountered. This lowers the latency of requests at the expense of little
    # more CPU usage.
    prefetch-key: no

    # Have unbound attempt to serve old responses from cache with a TTL of 0 in
    # the response without waiting for the actual resolution to finish. The
    # actual resolution answer ends up in the cache later on.
    #serve-expired: yes

    # If not 0, then set the SO_RCVBUF socket option to get more buffer space on
    # UDP port 53 incoming queries. So that short spikes on busy servers do not
    # drop packets (see counter in netstat -su). Otherwise, the number of bytes
    # to ask for, try “4m” on a busy server.
    # The OS caps it at a maximum, on linux Unbound needs root permission to
    # bypass the limit, or the admin can use sysctl net.core.rmem_max.
    # Default: 0 (use system value)
    # For example: sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=4194304
    # To persist reboots, edit /etc/sysctl.conf to include:
    # net.core.rmem_max=4194304
    # Larger socket buffer. OS may need config.
    # Ensure kernel buffer is large enough to not lose messages in traffic spikes
    so-rcvbuf: 1m

    # Open dedicated listening sockets for incoming queries for each thread and
    # try to set the SO_REUSEPORT socket option on each socket. May distribute
    # incoming queries to threads more evenly.
    #so-reuseport: yes

    # If not 0, then set the SO_SNDBUF socket option to get more buffer space
    # on UDP port 53 outgoing queries.
    # Specify the number of bytes to ask for, try “4m” on a very busy server.
    # The OS caps it at a maximum, on linux Unbound needs root permission to
    # bypass the limit, or the admin can use sysctl net.core.wmem_max.
    # For example: sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=4194304
    # To persist reboots, edit /etc/sysctl.conf to include:
    # net.core.wmem_max=4194304
    # Default: 0 (use system value)
    # Larger socket buffer. OS may need config.
    # Ensure kernel buffer is large enough to not lose messages in traffic spikes
    #so-sndbuf: 4m

    ###########################################################################
    # PRIVACY SETTINGS
    ###########################################################################

    # RFC 8198. Use the DNSSEC NSEC chain to synthesize NXDO-MAIN and other
    # denials, using information from previous NXDO-MAINs answers. In other
    # words, use cached NSEC records to generate negative answers within a
    # range and positive answers from wildcards. This increases performance,
    # decreases latency and resource utilization on both authoritative and
    # recursive servers, and increases privacy. Also, it may help increase
    # resilience to certain DoS attacks in some circumstances.
    #aggressive-nsec: yes

    # Extra delay for timeouted UDP ports before they are closed, in msec.
    # This prevents very delayed answer packets from the upstream (recursive)
    # servers from bouncing against closed ports and setting off all sort of
    # close-port counters, with eg. 1500 msec. When timeouts happen you need
    # extra sockets, it checks the ID and remote IP of packets, and unwanted
    # packets are added to the unwanted packet counter.
    #delay-close: 10000

    # Prevent the unbound server from forking into the background as a daemon
    #do-daemonize: no

    # Add localhost to the do-not-query-address list.
    #do-not-query-localhost: no

    # Number  of  bytes size of the aggressive negative cache.
    #neg-cache-size: 4M

    # Send minimum amount of information to upstream servers to enhance
    # privacy (best privacy).
    qname-minimisation: yes

    ###########################################################################
    # SECURITY SETTINGS
    ###########################################################################
    # Only give access to recursion clients from LAN IPs
    access-control: 127.0.0.1/32 allow
    access-control: 192.168.0.0/16 allow
    access-control: 172.16.0.0/12 allow
    access-control: 10.0.0.0/8 allow
    access-control: fc00::/7 allow
    access-control: ::1/128 allow

    # File with trust anchor for  one  zone, which is tracked with RFC5011
    # probes.
    auto-trust-anchor-file: "var/root.key"

    # Enable chroot (i.e, change apparent root directory for the current
    # running process and its children)
    chroot: "/opt/unbound/etc/unbound"

    # Deny queries of type ANY with an empty response.
    #deny-any: yes

    # Harden against algorithm downgrade when multiple algorithms are
    # advertised in the DS record.
    #harden-algo-downgrade: yes

    # RFC 8020. returns nxdomain to queries for a name below another name that
    # is already known to be nxdomain.
    #harden-below-nxdomain: yes

    # Require DNSSEC data for trust-anchored zones, if such data is absent, the
    # zone becomes bogus. If turned off you run the risk of a downgrade attack
    # that disables security for a zone.
    harden-dnssec-stripped: yes

    # Only trust glue if it is within the servers authority.
    harden-glue: yes

    # Ignore very large queries.
    #harden-large-queries: yes

    # Perform additional queries for infrastructure data to harden the referral
    # path. Validates the replies if trust anchors are configured and the zones
    # are signed. This enforces DNSSEC validation on nameserver NS sets and the
    # nameserver addresses that are encountered on the referral path to the
    # answer. Experimental option.
    #harden-referral-path: no

    # Ignore very small EDNS buffer sizes from queries.
    #harden-short-bufsize: yes

    # If enabled the HTTP header User-Agent is not set. Use with  caution
    # as some webserver configurations may reject HTTP requests lacking
    # this header. If needed, it is better to explicitly set the
    # the http-user-agent.
    #hide-http-user-agent: no

    # Refuse id.server and hostname.bind queries
    hide-identity: yes

    # Refuse version.server and version.bind queries
    hide-version: yes

    # Set the HTTP User-Agent header for outgoing HTTP requests. If
    # set to "", the default, then the package name  and  version  are
    #  used.
    http-user-agent: "DNS"

    # Report this identity rather than the hostname of the server.
    identity: "DNS"

    # These private network addresses are not allowed to be returned for public
    # internet names. Any  occurrence of such addresses are removed from DNS
    # answers. Additionally, the DNSSEC validator may mark the  answers  bogus.
    # This  protects  against DNS  Rebinding
    private-address: 10.0.0.0/8
    private-address: 172.16.0.0/12
    private-address: 192.168.0.0/16
    private-address: 169.254.0.0/16
    private-address: fd00::/8
    private-address: fe80::/10
    private-address: ::ffff:0:0/96

    # Enable ratelimiting of queries (per second) sent to nameserver for
    # performing recursion. More queries are turned away with an error
    # (servfail). This stops recursive floods (e.g., random query names), but
    # not spoofed reflection floods. Cached responses are not rate limited by
    # this setting. Experimental option.
    #ratelimit: 1000

    # Use this certificate bundle for authenticating connections made to
    # outside peers (e.g., auth-zone urls, DNS over TLS connections).
    #tls-cert-bundle: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

    # Set the total number of unwanted replies to eep track of in every thread.
    # When it reaches the threshold, a defensive action of clearing the rrset
    # and message caches is taken, hopefully flushing away any poison.
    # Unbound suggests a value of 10 million.
    #unwanted-reply-threshold: 10000

    # Use 0x20-encoded random bits in the query to foil spoof attempts. This
    # perturbs the lowercase and uppercase of query names sent to authority
    # servers and checks if the reply still has the correct casing.
    # This feature is an experimental implementation of draft dns-0x20.
    # Experimental option.
    # Don't use Capitalization randomization as it known to cause DNSSEC issues
    # see https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/unbound-stubby-or-dnscrypt-proxy/9378
    use-caps-for-id: no

    # Help protect users that rely on this validator for authentication from
    # potentially bad data in the additional section. Instruct the validator to
    # remove data from the additional section of secure messages that are not
    # signed properly. Messages that are insecure, bogus, indeterminate or
    # unchecked are not affected.
    #val-clean-additional: yes

    ###########################################################################
    # FORWARD ZONE
    ###########################################################################

    # include: /opt/unbound/etc/unbound/forward-records.conf

    ###########################################################################
    # LOCAL ZONE
    ###########################################################################

    # Include file for local-data and local-data-ptr
    #include: /opt/unbound/etc/unbound/a-records.conf
    #include: /opt/unbound/etc/unbound/srv-records.conf

    ###########################################################################
    # WILDCARD INCLUDE
    ###########################################################################
    #include: "/opt/unbound/etc/unbound/*.conf"

remote-control:
    control-enable: no
Docker host /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.178.5
Pihole container /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by Docker Engine.
# This file can be edited; Docker Engine will not make further changes once it
# has been modified.

nameserver 127.0.0.11
options ndots:0

# Based on host file: '/etc/resolv.conf' (internal resolver)
# ExtServers: [192.168.178.5]
# Overrides: []
# Option ndots from: internal

ad 1:)
Docker runs an internal service that provides container name resolution.
I am unaware whether those container names would be exposed via an internal DNS server, and whether that would make use of a specific internal domain.
If so, you could use Pihole's Conditional Forwarding to resolve container names, or a dnsmasq custom configuration if you'd have already enabled CF to retrieve local names from your router.

ad 2.)
You'd have to look at the reply rather than the request to find out whether Pi-hole is using a cached answer.

If you are scrutinising client behaviour instead:
DNS clients can be somewhat expected to cache DNS record replies until their TTL expires, but actual client behaviour would depend on the specific client, of course.

ad 3.)
This may be an indication of you using Docker's bridge network, perhaps on some Windows Desktop Docker version.

To be sure to avoid Docker NATting DNS requests, you could switch to another of Docker's network drivers, e.g. host or macvlan.

However, those alternative modes would not be available for Windows Docker.

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply! I really appreciate your answer.
I am going to try your suggestions once I got some spare time to tinker with my setup again. Thanks again!