A separate home for DNS
A Raspberry Pi 4 keeps lightweight services apart from the main Proxmox host’s maintenance cycle.
Debian media VM
Plex · Jellyfin · local ZFS
Pi-hole + Unbound
Monitoring · dashboards
The goal
Keep core DNS services running while rebooting or working on the main Proxmox machine.
What I built
A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B setup with cooling and a case. Pi-hole moved from a Proxmox LXC onto the Pi, with Unbound as a recursive DNS resolver. The Pi also carries lightweight services and monitoring.
Hardware & approach
The published inventory lists 4 GB LPDDR4, ARM Cortex-A72, MicroSD and a 500 GB SSD. The earlier July article specifically mentions a 64 GB SD card; the older Uses archive is historical, not a second current inventory.
Important decisions
Separate always-on network utilities from the main compute host. Use the Pi for lightweight work rather than copying the Proxmox server’s role.
Difficulties & solutions
Main-host maintenance previously interrupted services hosted there. Moving DNS to separate hardware reduced that coupling. The articles do not document a detailed failure or recovery test for the Pi.
Current outcome
The Pi is documented as an active part of the lab in August 2026.
Lessons learned
Where a service runs can matter as much as how it runs. Independent hardware gives maintenance a smaller area of impact, but does not establish redundancy or backups.