fix(netinfra): disable Pi-hole rate-limiting causing Uptime Kuma flapping

Root cause of intermittent DNS up/down alerts: Pi-hole's default
rate-limit (1000 queries/60s per client) was throttling Uptime Kuma
on the Cloudron VPS (tsys-cloudron, 100.107.35.78). Uptime Kuma sends
high-volume DNS queries to monitor dozens of hosts; when it exceeded
the limit, Pi-hole responded REFUSED, which Uptime Kuma detected as
DNS being down. This happened every 1-2 minutes.

Evidence: 40 rate-limiting events against 100.107.35.78 in recent
netinfra-01 Pi-hole logs. Also 10.53.0.1 (Docker bridge gateway) hit
4852 queries in a single 60s window.

Fix: Set dns.rateLimit.count=0 and dns.rateLimit.interval=0 on both
nodes (private tailnet, no DNS amplification risk). Also persisted in
docker-compose.yml via FTLCONF env vars.

Combined with prior IPv6 fix (4f82520), this resolves all known causes
of DNS flapping.

[#376]
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-06 13:59:45 -05:00
parent bad40feae6
commit d6988bb35f
2 changed files with 16 additions and 1 deletions
+11 -1
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@@ -34,14 +34,24 @@ docker compose up -d
Files are deployed to `/home/localuser/services/pihole/` on each node. Volumes Files are deployed to `/home/localuser/services/pihole/` on each node. Volumes
(`./etc-pihole`, `./etc-dnsmasq.d`) hold the persistent state. (`./etc-pihole`, `./etc-dnsmasq.d`) hold the persistent state.
## IPv6 disabled ## IPv6 disabled + Rate-limiting disabled
### IPv6
Both netinfra nodes run **IPv4-only**. IPv6 is disabled at the kernel level Both netinfra nodes run **IPv4-only**. IPv6 is disabled at the kernel level
(`/etc/sysctl.d/99-disable-ipv6.conf`) because netinfra-01 has no IPv6 internet (`/etc/sysctl.d/99-disable-ipv6.conf`) because netinfra-01 has no IPv6 internet
route, and Pi-hole's default IPv6 upstream (Google `2001:4860:4860::8888`) was route, and Pi-hole's default IPv6 upstream (Google `2001:4860:4860::8888`) was
causing continuous "Network unreachable" errors + intermittent DNS failures causing continuous "Network unreachable" errors + intermittent DNS failures
detected by Uptime Kuma. The upstream is now `8.8.8.8` (IPv4 only). detected by Uptime Kuma. The upstream is now `8.8.8.8` (IPv4 only).
### Rate-limiting
Pi-hole's default rate-limit (1000 queries / 60 seconds per client) was
**the root cause of Uptime Kuma DNS flapping**. Uptime Kuma runs on the
Cloudron VPS (`tsys-cloudron`, `100.107.35.78`) and sends high-volume DNS
queries to monitor dozens of hosts. When it exceeded 1000 queries/60s,
Pi-hole responded with REFUSED, which Uptime Kuma detected as DNS being
down. Rate-limiting is now disabled (`count=0, interval=0`) since this is a
private tailnet with no risk of DNS amplification attacks.
## Verify ## Verify
```bash ```bash
+5
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@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ services:
TZ: 'America/Chicago' TZ: 'America/Chicago'
FTLCONF_webserver_api_password: '${PIHOLE_WEB_PASSWORD}' FTLCONF_webserver_api_password: '${PIHOLE_WEB_PASSWORD}'
FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode: 'all' FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode: 'all'
# Rate-limiting disabled (count=0). Uptime Kuma on Cloudron VPS sends
# high-volume DNS queries for monitoring; default 1000/60s limit was
# causing intermittent REFUSED responses → Uptime Kuma flapping.
FTLCONF_dns_rateLimit_count: '0'
FTLCONF_dns_rateLimit_interval: '0'
FTLCONF_dns_upstreams: '["8.8.8.8"]' FTLCONF_dns_upstreams: '["8.8.8.8"]'
volumes: volumes:
- './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole' - './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole'