steamcache PiHole and SteamCache

[virtus96]

Hi everyone,

 

I would like how to configure a SteamCache server in a RaspberryPi 4.

 

My home architecture is this:

n.1 modem/router Fritzbox 7590

n.1 raspberrypi 1 with pihole set as home network DNS in the modem

n.1 raspberrypi 4 where I would like to set up a SteamCache server having an external USB HDD for cache storage

 

I searched around but I did not found anything and I watched too LTT episode in Youtube but I did not help me much as PiHole was not involved. Could you please help me?

 

Thank you in advance

 

 

[Levent]

You can run your network in the order like, Internet > RPI1 > RPI4 > Clients. Whatever the case, you are wasting your hardware running these on separate devices. All you need to do is create a script that pulls adblock hosts files from internet at regular intervals and set them in dnsmasq.

[Eigenvektor]

If you want to use your RasPi as a Steam cache you need to install the required packages for that. Whether the Pi also works as a Pi-hole isn't really relevant to the equation. Depending on what distribution you installed on the RasPi, you may be limited in terms of packages you need to make it also function as a cache.

 

Maybe this helps as a starting point: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/building-a-local-steam-caching-server-to-ease-the-bandwidth-blues/

[virtus96]

Thank you for your suggestions.

 

I thought of dividing the two raspberry considering the performance they could reach

as already PiHole has an intense R/W activity on the SD Card and I did not want to affect performance

for the caching server.

 

Which is the best practice for having configured a rspb as SteamCache having set as Upstream DNS my PiHole?

[Jarsky]

1 hour ago, virtus96 said:

PiHole has an intense R/W activity on the SD Card

How big is your network?? My network does about ~30k queries a day...which equates to around 7-8kbps of log activity. 

If you don't care about keeping logs you can also redirect /var/log to /tmpfs

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-extending-the-life-of-the-sd-card/

 

 

Quote

Which is the best practice for having configured a rspb as SteamCache having set as Upstream DNS my PiHole?

 

Its typically best to go Router DHCP > Pi-Hole > SteamCache. 

This is because as an example, you may want to configure Cloudflared in Pi-Hole, which means SteamCache can't be the upstream otherwise you have to split your DNS. 

It also means that if you take SteamCache offline, you don't break your networks DNS. Just change any clients pointing to your SteamCache, to point to your Pihole instead. 

 

As for installing SteamCache, the old steamcache project was replaced with monolithic lancache. Also as RPi is ARM you require the ARM files not x86/x86_64. 

Seems there's this unofficial build https://github.com/jrcichra/lancache-rpi

For configuration follow the standard Ubuntu/Debian/Docker tutorials. "Raspberry Pi OS" (formerly Raspbian) is just an ARM build of Debian. 

[virtus96]

Thank you guys, will try and let you know. 

 

So in my lancache configuration I have to set as Upstream DNS my pihole, right? 

[virtus96]

15 hours ago, Jarsky said:

How big is your network?? My network does about ~30k queries a day...which equates to around 7-8kbps of log activity. 

If you don't care about keeping logs you can also redirect /var/log to /tmpfs

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-extending-the-life-of-the-sd-card/

 

 

 

Its typically best to go Router DHCP > Pi-Hole > SteamCache. 

This is because as an example, you may want to configure Cloudflared in Pi-Hole, which means SteamCache can't be the upstream otherwise you have to split your DNS. 

It also means that if you take SteamCache offline, you don't break your networks DNS. Just change any clients pointing to your SteamCache, to point to your Pihole instead. 

 

As for installing SteamCache, the old steamcache project was replaced with monolithic lancache. Also as RPi is ARM you require the ARM files not x86/x86_64. 

Seems there's this unofficial build https://github.com/jrcichra/lancache-rpi

For configuration follow the standard Ubuntu/Debian/Docker tutorials. "Raspberry Pi OS" (formerly Raspbian) is just an ARM build of Debian. 

 

[virtus96]

Thank you guys, will try and let you know. 

 

So in my lancache configuration I have to set as Upstream DNS my pihole, right? 

[Jarsky]

8 hours ago, virtus96 said:

So in my lancache configuration I have to set as Upstream DNS my pihole, right? 

 

Correct. And your pihole upstream dns will probably be either your router or a public ip like Google, Quad9, your ISP, etc...

[virtus96]

Fine. I just saw that my fritxbox 7590 has two configurable sections: one in Internet option, having possibility to set Primary and Secondary DNS;

another option is in the Home Network settings, along with DHCP configurations.

 

How and where do I have to set things?

[Jarsky]

19 minutes ago, virtus96 said:

Fine. I just saw that my fritxbox 7590 has two configurable sections: one in Internet option, having possibility to set Primary and Secondary DNS;

another option is in the Home Network settings, along with DHCP configurations.

 

How and where do I have to set things?

 

The Primary/Secondary DNS in your Internet Options are probably your external DNS servers, so probably your ISP's DNS servers. You dont want to change these to anything other than external DNS (like Google DNS, Cloudflare, Quad9, etc...) otherwise your internet won't resolve. 

 

The DNS settings in your DHCP configurations are the DNS Server IP address that get handed out to clients via DHCP (when they get an IP automatically assigned). 

This is where you want to set it to either your Pi-hole or your LanCache, depending on how you want to set this up. 

 

Consider: If you're pointing DNS to your LanCache, if your LanCache is offline, then NOTHING with a DHCP address will get internet. 

In most home situations where you might only have 2-3 gaming computers, it's typically best to configure your Routers DNS for DHCP to point to your PiHole; and manually assign your LanCache IP as the DNS Server on only the machines that need to access LanCache. 

 

[virtus96]

I see. I tried to see yesterday some of the articles you shared with me and I was wondering if there is an official guide for Raspberry PI to set up a LanCache

for Windows Updates, Origin, Steam, BattleNet and Riot Games.