I run six Pi-holes on three different networks at three different physical locations. I wanted all six Pi-holes to share the same blocklists, blacklists, whitelists, and regex files, but it was time-consuming to manually synchronize all of them (modify the local Pi-holes, VPN into the second network and modify those, then VPN into the third network and modify those).
I wanted to use Pi-hole's built-in web UI to manage only *one* set of lists on *one* Pi-hole -- and then securely synchronize an unlimited number of additional Pi-holes. I couldn't find an existing script that did exactly what I wanted... so I wrote `pihole-cloudsync`.
`pihole-cloudsync` is lightweight enough to use if you're only syncing 2 Pi-holes on a home network, but powerful enough to synchronize virtually *unlimited* Pi-holes on an *unlimited* number of networks.
`pihole-cloudsync` allows you to designate any Pi-hole on any network to act as your "Master" or "Primary." This is the only Pi-hole whose list settings you will need to manage using Pi-hole's built-in web UI. The Primary Pi-hole then uses `pihole-cloudsync` in **Push** mode to *upload* its blocklist, blacklist, whitelist, and regex files to a private Git repository that you control (such as GitHub).
All other Pi-holes that you wish to keep synchronized use `pihole-cloudsync` in **Pull** mode to *download* your Primary Pi-hole's blocklist, blacklist, whitelist, and regex files from your private Git repository.
Prior to running `pihole-cloudsync`, you must first create a new dedicated Git respository to store your lists, then clone that new repository to all Pi-holes (both Primary and Secondary) that you wish to keep in sync. The easiest way to do that is to fork my own <atarget="_blank"href="https://github.com/stevejenkins/my-pihole-lists">`my-pihole-lists`</a> GitHub repository. Don't worry if my personal lists in that repo are different than yours. You'll overwrite your forked version of the repo with your own Pi-hole lists the first time you run `pihole-cloudsync` in **Push** mode.
4.*Optional:* If you wish to make your forked version of the repo private, press **Settings**, scroll down to the **Danger Zone**, then press **Make private**.
5. On your new repo's main page, press the **Clone or download** button and copy the **Clone with HTTPS** link to your clipboard.
4. Create your private local Git repo with `sudo git clone https://github.com/<yourusername>/my-pihole-lists.git` (paste the URL you copied from GitHub).
5. If you're using a repo name other than `my-pihole-lists`, edit `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync` and edit the `personal_git_dir` variable to match your local Git repo location.
6. Run `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync --initpush` to initialize the local Pi-hole in "Push" mode. It will copy your Primary Pi-hole's list files from `/etc/pihole` and add them to your new local Git repo. The `--initpush` mode only needs to be run once on your Primary Pi-hole.
7. Run `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync --push` to push/upload your Primary Pi-hole's lists from your local Git repo to your remote Git repo. You will have to manually enter your GitHub email address and password the first time you do this, but read below for how to save your login credentials so you can run this script unattended.
4. Create your private local Git repo with `sudo git clone https://github.com/<yourusername>/my-pihole-lists.git` (paste the URL you copied from GitHub)
5. If you're using a repo name other than `my-pihole-lists`, edit `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync` and edit the `personal_git_dir` variable to match your local Git repo location.
6. Run `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync --initpull` to initialize the local Pi-hole in Pull/Download mode. You will have to manually enter your GitHub email address and password the first time you do this, but read below for how to save your login credentials so you can run this script unattended. The `--initpull` option will also perform your first pull automatically and only needs to be run once on each Secondary Pi-hole. All future pulls can be performed with `/usr/local/bin/pihole-cloudsync/pihole-cloudsync --pull`.
7. Running `pihole-cloudsync --pull` will pull/download your Primary Pi-hole's lists from your remote Git repo to your Secondary Pi-hole's local Git repo. The `--pull` option will automatically copy the downloaded file(s) to your Pi-hole directory and tell Pi-hole to do a `pihole -g` command to update its lists.
Once you've successfully pushed your Primary Pi-hole's lists to your remote Git repo, you could optionally choose to edit/manage your whitelist, blacklists, and regex files directly on your Git repo using your cloud-based Git provider's built-in editing tools. If you go this route, you'll need to re-configure what was previously your Primary Pi-hole to run in Pull mode (which will turn it into a Secondary). Do:
That will re-initialize the local Pi-hole in Pull/Download mode. If you had previously automated your Primary Pi-hole's periodic pushes, be sure to edit your `crontab` so that `pihole-cloudsync` runs in Pull mode instead of Push mode.
**The following steps must be performed on each Pi-hole you wish to use with `pihole-cloudsync`.**
In order to automate or run `pihole-cloudsync` unattended, you will need to either store your GitHub login credentials locally or create an SSH key for your Pi-hole's root user and upload the public key to GitHub. You will need to do this on the Primary Pi-hole as well as all Secondary Pi-holes.
The SSH key approach is for more advanced users who don't need me to explain how to do it. To store your Git credentials locally, do the following on each Pi-hole:
The next time you pull from or push to the remote repository, you'll be prompted for your username and password. But you won't have to re-enter them after that. So do a simple:
Once each Pi-hole's local Git repo has been configured to save your login credentials, you can automate your Primary Pi-hole's "push" and your Secondary Pi-holes' "pull" in any number of ways. The simplest way is to run a simple cron job a few times a day.
Once you can successfully run `pihole-cloudsync --push` from the command line on your Primary Pi-hole, do `crontab -e` (or `sudo crontab -e` if you're not logged in as the root user) and create a cron entry such as:
And once you can successfully run `pihole-cloudsync --pull` from the command line on each of your Secondary Pi-holes, do `sudo crontab -e` and create a cron entry that runs 5 minutes after your Primary pushes any changes, such as:
**NOTE:** On Raspian, the script won't execute via cron without the `sudo` command (as shown above). If you're having trouble getting the script to run unattended on Raspian, try including `sudo` in the cron command.
You are totally responsible for anything this script does to your system. Whether it launches a nice game of Tic Tac Toe or global thermonuclear war, you're on your own. :)
