Unable to access Pi-hole using pi.hole

Help
1

Context:

I am running Pi-hole in a Docker container, within an LXC on my Proxmox server. I have assigned a static IPv4 address to the LXC of 172.29.83.104.

I am using this arrangement, as I find it easier and more convenient to spin up and manage a Docker container and it’s configuration, rather than it is with an entire LXC.

I am unable to access the admin panel using pi.hole/admin. I am still able to access Pi-hole using it’s IP address, and by using the proxy host I set for it in Nginx.

This is the docker-compose.yaml for my Pi-hole container:

# More info at https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole/ and https://docs.pi-hole.net/
services:
  pihole:
    container_name: pihole
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    ports:
      # DNS Ports
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      # Default HTTP Port
      - "80:80/tcp"
      # Default HTTPs Port. FTL will generate a self-signed certificate
      - "443:443/tcp"
      # Uncomment the line below if you are using Pi-hole as your DHCP server
      #- "67:67/udp"
      # Uncomment the line below if you are using Pi-hole as your NTP server
      #- "123:123/udp"
    environment:
      # Set the appropriate timezone for your location (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones), e.g:
      TZ: 'Europe/London'
      # Set a password to access the web interface. Not setting one will result in a random password being assigned
      FTLCONF_webserver_api_password: 'REDACTED'
      # If using Docker's default `bridge` network setting the dns listening mode should be set to 'all'
      FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode: 'all'
    # Volumes store your data between container upgrades
    volumes:
      # For persisting Pi-hole's databases and common configuration file
      - './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole'
      # Uncomment the below if you have custom dnsmasq config files that you want to persist. Not needed for most starting fresh with Pi-hole v6. If you're upgrading from v5 you and have used this directory before, you should keep it enabled for the first v6 container start to allow for a complete migration. It can be removed afterwards. Needs environment variable FTLCONF_misc_etc_dnsmasq_d: 'true'
      #- './etc-dnsmasq.d:/etc/dnsmasq.d'
    cap_add:
      # See https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole#note-on-capabilities
      # Optional, if Pi-hole should get some more processing time
      - SYS_NICE
    restart: always

Expected Behaviour:

I should be able to access the admin panel using pi.hole/admin.

Actual Behaviour:

Going to pi.hole/admin returns a ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT error.

Debug Token:

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/qyuutIPk/

2

Can you access the web interface via IP?

Also, you changed webserver.domain from pi.hole to custom domain.
Can you access the web interface using this domain?

4

Yes, I can access it using that IP. I had set the webserver.domain to the custom domain a while ago. I just tried replacing it with the default pi.hole and restarted the container, but this didn’t fix the issue. I get the same issue when going to pi.hole or pi.hole/admin.

When I try to ping pi.hole from my PC (which uses my Pi-hole as DNS), I get:

PS C:\> ping pi.hole

Pinging pi.hole [172.18.0.2] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 172.18.0.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

172.18.0.2 is the IP address of the Pi-hole Docker container itself, and not the LXC. As this is different to my LAN subnet, while it can resolve the domain as Pi-hole knows it, it can’t actually reach that IP.

6

Your container is answering with the wrong IP, because that's the only IP visible from within the container.

You need to tell Pi-hole which IP should be used adding these environment vars to the compose file:

      FTLCONF_dns_reply_host_IPv4: '172.29.83.104'
      FTLCONF_dns_reply_host_force4: true
7

That fixed it! Thanks for your help!