I run it in a VM and it’s great

I run pihole without any problems as a docker container. I assume you want to ask how well it works to add custom records, because that’s what you usually do with a dns server.

Adding single records with the web ui works just fine. However, adding wildcards isn’t possible. So you end up attaching a terminal to your container and adding dnsmasq configs yourself. This is a bit poor.

On the other hand: How often do you need to add wildcards? I needed like 2 entries since I set up pihole a few years ago.

I just use adguard home. Worker a little better in my docker setup.

To anyone having issues running on a pi it’s likely either or both of the following item -cheap 5v power supply. Yes you can use an old phone charger but it won’t cut it for long term usage. Get a quality unit or better yet the branded pihole charger. We ended up with a Poe hat that it runs off. Sorted Ethernet and power supply.

-memory card. Buy a quality, fast card and you will be fine.

Going on 8 years with my current pi setup. One failure around 6 years in which was the memory card

The number one rule of selfhosting unbound. Make two.

You won’t be happy one morning if you don’t. I run unbound with adblocking on OpenWRT, but if my router dies, my whole network does anyway, so… Eh.

I run 2 instances of pihole/unbound as lxcs on my main server and local back up, works great.

If I didn’t have the two big boxes I’d use my pi4/zero2 to run two instances of pihole/unbound.

If I didn’t have my pis, I’d run 2 instances of pihole/unbound on literally anything I could install it on.

What I’m saying is that I consider pihole/unbound to be essential infrastructure at this point. I’m also trying to say I’ve broken my only instance of pihole enough times to understand the importance of redundancy.

I use Pis as a (sort of) hardware key to get family and friends onto my Tailscale VPN. They all have pihole too. I haven’t convinced any of them to get a pi0 as a redundant box, but I’m sure they’ll learn eventually too. No doubt it’ll be my problem.

I switched to https://github.com/0xERR0R/blocky

Pihole was fine, but had features I didn’t care (mostly UI). Blocky is much smaller and lightweight

I used pihole for years, but the recent updates made me look for alternatives. There was a major (v6?) update fuckup, but also some random freezes and block lists going missing…

Looking for alternatives, I tried out Technitium. Extremely easy to set up, rock solid, running steady for about 6 months (with frequent updates), and they recently introduced built in high-availability.

I run Pi-Hole in a docker container on my server. I never saw the point in having a dedicated bit of hardware for it.
That said, I don’t understand how people use the internet without one. The times I have had to travel for work, trying to do anything on the internet reminded me of the bad old days of the '90s with pop-ups and flashing banners enticing me to punch the monkey. It’s just sad to see one of the greatest communications platforms we have ever created reduced to a fire-hose of ads.

I preferred AdGuardHome over PiHole, but currently my servers are collecting dust as I need to get electrical work done before I can hook them up.

It really sucks…

Yes.

Maybe a controversial take, but I like pihole for blocking only - I have a pair of powerDNS servers set up for my internal name resolution. They recurse to Pihole, but can fall back to internet DNS servers if Pihole isn’t responsive.

I tried pihole for local resolution and found it to be a fairly large pain to automate. Plus kubes has PDNS hooks for auto-updating DNS entries.

I am one of those zillion users. I love it.

I like it but just not on a Pi. I found it too unstable. I found it easier to host in a docker container.

Although these days i just use blocklists on my router.

@bernhoftbret@lemmy.world pihole is great. I use AdGuard now but either is good. The important thing is having a dns server at home