Running Pi-Hole on a Mac via Docker

[glenthompson]

Anybody running Pi-Hole on a Mac via Docker? Was thinking about adding it to our network but then came across some instructions to run it on a Mac. As I have an always on Mac mini running as a file, media, and backup server it seems like an easier solution.

 

[glenthompson]

Got it up and running. Docker wanted me on Catalina or higher which I hadn’t done yet. Still running Mojave. Once I got Catalina loaded, the install went easily. So far this afternoon it has blocked over 2k queries out of 10k.

 

[Brian33]

I did run Pi-Hole on my 2012 Mac Mini for several months, and it worked well. However, the statistics didn't show the individual clients' IP addresses -- it just looked like all queries came from one IP address. (If I remember correctly.) I'm certain I had things set up properly, and each client was using the correct IP address for DNS resolution, with no intermediary DNS servers. I did a lot of research, and finally found information indicating that it was due to a limitation of Docker for Mac relating to how it handles networking under macOS. Apparently under Linix it could be worked around, but not on macOS. Like I said, though, the Pi-Hole did its job just fine.

Partly due to the missing client info, but also just for fun, I eventually bought a Raspberry Pi and now run Pi-Hole on that. It's kind of fun to see which clients have more blocked requests than the others! BTW, pi-hole and Raspberry Pi OS have been extremely stable; they had been running continuously for over 120 days before I re-booted the pi for an unrelated reason.

Good luck!

 

[dimme]

I run pi hole on my Mac mini server in a VM using ubuntu server. I never had luck with docker on a Mac.

 

[reukiodo]

Containers are nice, but I’ve had nothing but trouble with them on anything but linux.

 

[uller6]

I'm running a Pi-hole on my old 2013 MBP. It works great! Over the past year or so it's sped up my network considerably, and reduced external network traffic ~20%. Docker has some nagging issues on MacOS (updates, auto-start on boot problems), but once running works well for months of uptime. I suppose I could run it on a raspberry Pi, but I'm happy to keep my old MBP useful.

 

[forrie]

I have a similar question, but relevant to my traveling. I have a Raspberry Pi that I use here on my network; works great. I have a spare Raspberry PI. I thought I might use one as a proxy from a hotel (for example), but that would not really work well if you're not on a wired LAN (ie: WIFI).

I know there are issues running this under MacOS and Docker, so I wonder if anyone has solved this issue in a scenario like mine (ie: using it portably while traveling).

Thanks!

 

[justperry]

Think I am going to install it in a VM instead of Docker, Docker gives me headaches on a mac.

I ran docker on a QNAP Nas, now...that was easy, problem was the NAS was a 4 Bay one, with steady 30 Watt consumption, I live in Europe, and right now €0,88 per KW/h plus extra cost a day.

 

[uller6]

Think I am going to install it in a VM instead of Docker, Docker gives me headaches on a mac.

I ran docker on a QNAP Nas, now...that was easy, problem was the NAS was a 4 Bay one, with steady 30 Watt consumption, I live in Europe, and right now €0,88 per KW/h plus extra cost a day.

I’m running docker + pinhole on an old 2014 Mac mini without issues. I’m at about 6 months of uptime right now. I think the Apple silicon builds of docker still have major issues but the intel build works fine in my experience.