Chris Harrsch

Architecture Overview

Phase 1: Unraid Host Preparation

1. Navigate to your Unraid dashboard and go to Settings > Docker.
2. Toggle Enable Docker to No and click Apply (you must stop the service to edit core settings).
3. Switch the UI to Advanced View (toggle in the top right).
4. Locate Host access to custom networks and change it to Enabled.
5. Toggle Enable Docker back to Yes and click Apply.

Phase 2: Host-Level Tailscale Configuration

1. Open the Unraid Terminal.
2. Execute the Tailscale up command, specifically appending the --advertise-routes flag for your br0 subnet.
3. Command: tailscale up --advertise-routes=10.0.10.2/232
4. (Note: You can make this more permissive to include more IPs in the range using /24 if preferred, but /32 covers just the single IP). Multiple single IPs can be advertised by using --advertise-routes=10.0.10.2/32,10.0.10.3/32

Phase 3: Pi-hole Docker Deployment

1. In Unraid, go to the Docker tab and add/edit the Pi-hole container.
2. Apply the following core network configurations:
3.   • Network Type: Custom : br0
4.   • Fixed IP address: 10.0.10.2
5.   • Use Tailscale (Sidecar): OFF
6. Ensure ports 53 (TCP/UDP) and 80 (TCP) are mapped correctly.
7. Click Apply to build and start the container.
8. Open the Pi-hole Web UI (http://10.0.10.2/admin). (Note: You may need to set the password by opening a console to the container and running pihole setpassword [PASSWORD]).
9. Go to Settings > DNS.
10. Under Interface settings, select Permit all origins. (Required because queries will be arriving from 100.x Tailscale IPs, not just the local 10.0 subnet).
11. Ensure your Upstream DNS Servers are set strictly to public providers (e.g., Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Google 8.8.8.8). Do not point upstream to your local router.

Phase 4: Tailscale Admin Console

1. Log into the Tailscale Admin Console on the web.
2. Approve the Route:
3.   • Go to the Machines tab and locate your Unraid server.
4.   • Click the three-dot menu and select Edit route settings.
5.   • Toggle the 10.0.10.2/32 subnet route to ON.
6. Enforce Global DNS:
7.   • Navigate to the DNS tab.
8.   • Under Nameservers, click Add nameserver > Custom.
9.   • Enter the exact local IPv4 address of the Pi-hole: 10.0.10.2.
10.   • Toggle Override local DNS to ON.
11.   • Ensure MagicDNS is enabled.

Phase 5: Client-Side Troubleshooting (Windows)

1. If a Windows machine refuses to resolve hostnames after completing Phases 1-4:
2. Flush the OS Cache:
3.   • Open an Administrator Command Prompt and run: ipconfig /flushdns
4.   • Check the DNS server you are using by running nslookup
5.   • Run ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew to force the OS to pick up the new DNS settings.
6.   • Restart the Tailscale client app.