Currently my home server runs a few services that have a web UI. I currently access them by typing in the IP address and port number, but it’s now starting to get annoying to remember the ports.
What’s the best way to handle this?
I’ve thought of two solutions:
- I’m running a local DNS server, so I probably would be able to make CNAMEs from something like
adguard.server.localto the IP, and do a reverse proxy with something like Caddy - Maybe there’s some unified dashboard app that is a reverse proxy with some simple frontend where I can just navigate to
server.localand click a button to choose which specific service I want to see?
What are your opinions on this?
Set up a domain with a main site that has links to your different services, then set up reverse proxies so you can put certificates on them and serve them all on port 443. If your WAN IP is relatively static then you can forward ports 80 and 443 to your server and use your own domain, if not you can use something like FreeDNS. Or skip the last bit if you don’t need WAN access.
If you want them accessible from outside. I just favorite the ip:port for the internal stuff or you can use something like https://github.com/linuxserver/Heimdall
A reverse proxy will achieve what you’re looking for, yes. I do precisely what you’re describing. I use “local DNS” on my pihole, with CNAMEs for each service pointing to my server IP address. I’m running Caddy on the server, specifically this (because my services are running in Docker containers): https://github.com/lucaslorentz/caddy-docker-proxy
As far as a “dashboard” app, you have options there as well. I’m using Heimdall currently, but Homarr also looks pretty nice.
Is pihole alone enough to do the reverse proxy, or do you need caddy as well? I’m only somewhat familiar with how these things work
PiHole can’t specify specific ports for each cname, which is what you need a reverse proxy for.
Typically, you create all of your cnames in pihole and direct them to your reverse proxy server IP. From your reverse proxy of choice, you specify each url to the specific ip:port of your service.
How can I use my Pi-hole as DNS Server also over VPN? I run Wireguard on Unraid. And while the VPN works, I can’t seem to the DNS over VPN to go my way.
Set your VPN clients to use Pihole as their DNS server.
