Troubleshooting DNS Resolution Issues in My Homelab with Unbound and dnsmasq

Introduction to DNS Resolution Issues

I’ve had my fair share of DNS resolution issues in my homelab over the years. Recently, I switched from using a single DNS resolver to a combination of Unbound and dnsmasq. This setup has been working well for me, but I’ve still encountered some issues that required troubleshooting. The real trick is identifying the root cause of the problem, which can be tricky.

Understanding Unbound and dnsmasq

Unbound is a recursive DNS resolver that provides a secure and private way to resolve domain names. It’s designed to be fast, efficient, and highly configurable. Dnsmasq, on the other hand, is a lightweight DNS forwarder and DHCP server. I’ve seen this go wrong when people don’t configure them correctly, so it’s essential to understand how they work together. In practice, using Unbound and dnsmasq together provides a good balance between security and performance.

[Read More]

Resolving DNS Troubles at Home: A systemd-resolved and dnsmasq Setup Gone Wrong

Introduction to DNS Troubles

I’ve been running my homelab for years, and one thing that still gets me is DNS troubles. Last year, I decided to set up systemd-resolved and dnsmasq to manage my home network’s DNS. The idea was to use systemd-resolved as the primary resolver and dnsmasq as a caching layer to improve performance. Sounds simple, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

Setting Up systemd-resolved

To start, I enabled systemd-resolved on my Ubuntu-based server. This involved editing the /etc/systemd/resolved.conf file to set the DNS servers and domains. I opted for Cloudflare’s DNS servers - they’re known for being fast and secure.

[Read More]