Preserve original DHCP/DNS settings of linux server

This evening I'm going to install pi-hole on my Debian Buster server (static IP). The server currently hosts samba, plex, unifi controller and tvheadend but has spare capacity to run pi-hole as well.

Before I install I want to preserve the current DHCP/DNS settings in case I need to rollback but based on some searches over the last few days I can't nail this down.

At the moment the Debian server does not act as a DHCP/DNS server so only comes with what's part of stock Debian (no desktop). I'm aware that pi-hole will possibly install a different DHCP server but I won't be using it as I wish to continue using the DHCP server on my router and configure all my clients DNS settings manually.

So which DHCP/DNS settings/config files should I be backing up pre-install?

Note that Buster is not a supported distribution.

Yes I know, that doesn't really concern me as it seems to be working with recent Ubuntu versions (which are based on Debian Testing), but I may want to roll back so would appreciate some guidance in relation to my question

The DHCP server functionality is part of the dnsmasq implementation included in pihole-FTL. This is not active by default. So, if your router is currently providing DHCP services, this will not change.

Pi-Hole ports are described here - you would want to ensure your existing services on the server will not conflict.

thanks that link is very useful

dhcpcd5 might get installed, if not installed already, that could change current configured network settings:

pi@noads:~ $ apt show dhcpcd5
[..]
Description: DHCPv4, IPv6RA and DHCPv6 client with IPv4LL support
 dhcpcd is a one stop network management daemon which includes
  * RFC compliant DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 clients
  * DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation support
  * IPv4LL (aka ZeroConf) support
  * ARP address conflict resolution
  * Link carrier detection
  * Wireless SSID profiles
  * ARP ping profiles
[..]

To prevent, you could pin the package:

many thanks, I will take a look at that now

In reply to my own post for the benefit of anyone else interested, the installer didn't quite make it to the end on my Debian Buster installation but only 2 things required tweaking.

The FTL service wasn't enabled or started:

systemctl pihole-FTL.service enable
systemctl pihole-FTL.service start

and fixing a lighttpd bug which is documented here:

https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/issues/2557
(adjust the .pl file reference in the lighttpd config, restart lighttpd and you are good to go)

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