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@github-actions github-actions released this 30 Jan 19:54
v1.3.4
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PowerDNS dnsdist — Home Assistant Integration

Release
Home Assistant
dnsdist
Validate HACS
Ruff
Tests
Type Check
MIT License

A secure, high-performance bridge between PowerDNS dnsdist 2.x and Home Assistant 2025.10+. Monitor every proxy, surface aggregated insights, and control dnsdist safely through REST-only actions.

📘 Table of Contents

  1. At a Glance
  2. Feature Highlights
  3. Installation
  4. Configuration
  5. Entities
  6. Lovelace Card
  7. Options
  8. Services
  9. Device Buttons
  10. Diagnostics
  11. Troubleshooting
  12. File Map
  13. Changelog
  14. License

⚡ At a Glance

Integration type Hub (per-host and per-group devices)
Domain dnsdist
Current version 1.3.4
Home Assistant 2025.10+
dnsdist 2.x
License MIT

✨ Feature Highlights

  • UI-only setup — zero YAML required.
  • Multiple hosts — each dnsdist endpoint becomes its own device.
  • Aggregated groups with smart rollups:
    • Sum: queries, responses, drops, rule drops, downstream errors, cache hits/misses
    • Average: CPU %
    • Max: uptime
  • Filtering rule sensors for per-rule match counts (opt-in for hosts, on by default for groups) complete with idle/active icons.
  • Dynamic rule sensors for temporary blocks (dynblocks) from rate limiting, DoS protection, etc.
  • Custom Lovelace card (dnsdist-card) for a beautiful dashboard display with gauges, counters, and filtering rules.
  • Long-term statistics ready sensors:
    • Monotonic counters as TOTAL_INCREASING (count unit)
    • cacheHit and cpu as % (MEASUREMENT)
    • uptime as seconds (device_class=duration, MEASUREMENT)
    • security_status with rich attributes
    • req_per_hour / req_per_day as integer rolling windows
  • Secure by default with HTTPS, SSL verification, and encrypted API key storage (uses HA’s secret store when available).
  • Diagnostics bundle that automatically redacts sensitive data.
  • REST-only services (clear_cache, enable_server, disable_server, get_backends) and a Clear Cache device button for both hosts and groups.

Rate sensors: Both req_per_hour and req_per_day are extrapolated from available history until enough data is collected (1 hour and 24 hours respectively), then switch to actual measured values.

🛠 Installation

Requires Home Assistant 2025.10 or newer.

  1. Copy custom_components/dnsdist/ into your Home Assistant config/custom_components/ directory.
  2. Restart Home Assistant.
  3. Navigate to Settings → Devices & Services → + Add Integration and pick PowerDNS dnsdist.

HACS (optional): Add this repository as a custom source (if private) or install directly if public. Ensure the integration sits in custom_components/dnsdist.

🧩 Configuration

Add a Host

  • Name: Display name for Home Assistant
  • Host / Port: dnsdist API endpoint (default port 8083)
  • Host validation: Enforces RFC 1123 hostnames plus IPv4/IPv6 literals, catching typos before the connection test
  • API Key: Optional; securely stored when supported
  • Use HTTPS / Verify SSL: Toggle TLS and certificate validation
  • Update interval (s): Polling frequency (default 30)
  • Include filtering rule sensors: Disabled by default; enable to expose per-rule sensors
  • Connection verification: Setup now requires a valid dnsdist statistics JSON payload before finishing, so wrong URLs or non-json endpoints fail fast

Add a Group

  • Group name — Home Assistant device label
  • Members — Choose from existing host names
  • Update interval (s): Default 30
  • Include filtering rule sensors: Enabled by default; disable to skip aggregated rule sensors

Group rollups: sum (counters), avg (CPU %), max (uptime), and priority security_status (critical → warning → ok → unknown).

📊 Entities

Each host or group creates a Home Assistant device with these sensors:

  • queries, responses, drops, rule_drop, downstream_errors, cache_hits, cache_misses
    • state_class=TOTAL_INCREASING, unit count
  • cacheHit — % (MEASUREMENT)
  • cpu — % (MEASUREMENT)
  • uptime — seconds (device_class=duration, MEASUREMENT)
    • Attribute human_readable: Xd HHh MMm
  • req_per_hour — integer requests/hour (rolling 1-hour window, extrapolated from available history until 1h of data is collected)
  • req_per_day — integer requests/day (rolling 24-hour window, extrapolated from available history until 24h of data is collected)
  • security_status — string with status_code (0–3) and status_label
  • Filtering rule sensors (Filter <rule name>) — per-rule matches for hosts, aggregated counts plus a sources attribute for groups. Icons flip between mdi:filter-check-outline (idle) and mdi:filter (active).
  • Dynamic rule sensors (Dynblock <network>) — tracks temporary blocks (dynblocks) with attributes for reason, action, time remaining, and eBPF status. Icons flip between mdi:shield-check-outline (idle) and mdi:shield-alert (active).

Sensor entity names are metric-only. Home Assistant automatically prefixes them with the device name (e.g., "elrond Cache Hit Rate").

🎨 Lovelace Card

The integration includes a custom Lovelace card for displaying dnsdist metrics in a visually appealing dashboard layout.

Features

  • Header with title and security status badge (OK/Warning/Critical color-coded)
  • Needle gauges for CPU usage and Cache Hit Rate with color gradients in compact horizontal layout
    • CPU label and value on the left, gauge on the right
    • Cache Hit gauge on the left, label and value on the right
    • CPU: green (low) to red (high) indicating load severity
    • Cache Hit: red (low) to green (high) indicating cache efficiency
  • Uptime display in human-readable format
  • Traffic counters grid: Queries, Responses, Drops, Rule Drops, Errors
  • Request rates tiles: Per Hour and Per Day
  • Filtering rules list sorted by match count with expandable details
  • Dynamic rules list showing temporary blocks with reason, time remaining, and block count
  • Show/Hide 0 Hits toggle button to show or hide dynamic rules with zero matches (hidden by default)
  • Clear Cache button with confirmation dialog
  • Theme support respects Home Assistant light/dark mode
  • Compact mode for sidebar placement

Installation

The card is automatically registered when the integration loads. If needed, you can manually add the resource:

  1. Go to Settings → Dashboards → Resources
  2. Add /dnsdist_static/dnsdist-card.js?v=1.3.4 as a JavaScript Module

Usage

Add the card to your dashboard via the UI card picker (search for "dnsdist") or manually:

type: custom:dnsdist-card
entity_prefix: dns1              # Required: matches your dnsdist device name
title: My DNS Server             # Optional: custom card title
show_filters: true               # Optional: show filtering rules section (default: true)
show_dynamic_rules: true         # Optional: show dynamic rules section (default: true)
show_actions: true               # Optional: show action buttons (default: true)
compact: false                   # Optional: compact mode for sidebars (default: false)

Configuration Options

Option Type Default Description
entity_prefix string required The device name prefix used for entity IDs (e.g., dns1 for sensor.dns1_total_queries)
title string entity_prefix Custom title displayed in the card header
show_filters boolean true Show the filtering rules section
show_dynamic_rules boolean true Show the dynamic rules (dynblocks) section
show_actions boolean true Show action buttons (Clear Cache)
compact boolean false Use smaller sizes for sidebar placement

Visual Editor

The card includes a visual configuration editor accessible through the Lovelace UI. It automatically detects available dnsdist devices and provides toggles for all options.

⚙️ Options

From the integration options panel you can:

  • Rename a host or group
  • Tune the Update interval
  • For groups, add or remove Members
  • Toggle Filtering rule sensors at any time (hosts default off, groups default on)
  • Decide whether disabling filtering rule sensors should immediately delete the existing entities (enabled by default)

🔌 Services

All services live under the dnsdist domain. Supplying host targets a specific display name; omit it to broadcast the action to every host (groups excluded).

Console-dependent behaviors are gone. Everything here calls the official dnsdist REST API so it works regardless of your YAML webserver configuration.

dnsdist.clear_cache

service: dnsdist.clear_cache
data:
  host: "amandil"  # optional; runs on all hosts when omitted
  pool: ""         # optional; defaults to dnsdist's primary pool

dnsdist.enable_server

service: dnsdist.enable_server
data:
  host: "amandil"
  backend: "192.168.1.10:53"

dnsdist.disable_server

service: dnsdist.disable_server
data:
  host: "amandil"
  backend: "192.168.1.10:53"

dnsdist.get_backends

service: dnsdist.get_backends
data:
  host: "amandil"  # optional; runs on all hosts when omitted

🕹 Device Buttons

Each host or group device exposes a single Clear Cache button. Confirmation is required, and group presses cascade to every member host.

🧪 Diagnostics

Visit Settings → Devices & Services → PowerDNS dnsdist → ⋮ → Download diagnostics. The export automatically redacts secrets such as API keys.

🩺 Troubleshooting

  • Counters & Recorder — Monotonic counters use TOTAL_INCREASING and the count unit, so long-term statistics stay healthy.
  • Device page linking — Host and group devices use unique DeviceInfo.identifiers, preventing cross-linking.
  • Group shows “No active members yet” — Normal until each member host completes its first refresh.
  • REST prerequisites on dnsdist — Ensure the dnsdist webserver is enabled, has an API key, and allows your Home Assistant network in the ACL.

🗂 File Map 

custom_components/dnsdist/
  __init__.py
  manifest.json
  const.py
  utils.py
  config_flow.py
  options_flow.py
  coordinator.py
  group_coordinator.py
  sensor.py
  button.py
  services.py
  diagnostics.py
  strings.json
  translations/
    en.json
  services.yaml
  frontend/                    # Lovelace card source
    package.json
    tsconfig.json
    rollup.config.mjs
    src/
      dnsdist-card.ts          # Main card component
      dnsdist-card-editor.ts   # Visual config editor
      styles.ts                # CSS styles
      types.ts                 # TypeScript interfaces
  www/
    dnsdist-card.js            # Built card bundle

📝 Changelog

1.3.4

  • Add toggle button in Lovelace card to show/hide dynamic rules with zero hits (hidden by default)
  • Extrapolate hourly and daily request rates from available history when less than 1 hour or 24 hours of data is collected

1.3.3

  • Fix OptionsFlow compatibility with newer Home Assistant versions
    • Remove manual config_entry assignment that conflicts with read-only property

1.3.2

  • Fix dynamic rules (dynblocks) not being removed from card when they expire
    • Sensors are now automatically removed when dnsdist stops returning the block
    • Card filters out expired dynblocks based on elapsed time since last update
  • Fix time remaining countdown not updating in real-time
    • Countdown now decrements every second when a dynblock is expanded
    • Shows "Expiring..." when time reaches zero

1.3.1

  • Redesign gauge layout for more compact display
    • CPU label and value positioned on the left of the gauge
    • Cache Hit label and value positioned on the right of the gauge
    • Reduced horizontal spacing between gauges

1.3.0

  • Add dynamic rules (dynblocks) support
    • New sensors track temporary blocks from rate limiting and DoS protection
    • Attributes include network, reason, action, time remaining, and eBPF status
    • Icons flip between shield-check (idle) and shield-alert (active)
  • Add dynamic rules section to Lovelace card
    • Displays blocked networks with block count and expandable details
    • New show_dynamic_rules configuration option (default: true)
    • Visual editor toggle for dynamic rules display
  • Group aggregation for dynamic rules with source tracking

1.2.1

  • Redesign gauge visualization with needle indicator and segmented color gradient arc
    • CPU gauge: green to red gradient (high values indicate load)
    • Cache Hit gauge: red to green gradient (high values indicate efficiency)
    • Smooth needle animation on value changes

1.2.0

  • Add custom Lovelace card (dnsdist-card) for dashboard display.
    • Visual gauges for CPU and Cache Hit Rate
    • Traffic counters grid with formatted numbers
    • Request rate tiles (per hour/day)
    • Dynamic filtering rules list sorted by match count
    • Expandable rule details with pattern, type, and status
    • Clear Cache button with confirmation dialog
    • Visual config editor with device auto-detection
    • Compact mode for sidebar placement
    • Full theme support (light/dark mode)
  • Auto-register frontend resource on integration load.

1.1.18

  • Fix SSL verification logic to correctly skip validation when disabled.
  • Improve error handling and add specific logging for SSL and connection errors.
  • Add debug logging for API requests in config flow and coordinator.

1.1.17

  • Fix schema serialization error for custom host validator.
  • Fix config flow step transition and API validation.
  • Add debug logging and improve error handling in config flow.
  • Add unit tests for validators and utility functions.
  • Add GitHub Actions workflows for ruff linting and mypy type checking.

1.1.16

  • Fix ruff linting errors: remove unused imports and fix module-level import ordering.
  • Add missing monotonic import in coordinator for CPU timing calculations.
  • Remove unnecessary try/except around dict.get() in sensor module.
  • Remove blocking asyncio.sleep call in group coordinator that could cause timeouts.
  • Add type hints to coordinator methods for improved code clarity.
  • Standardize asyncio timeout import style across modules.

1.1.15

  • Refactor codebase to eliminate code duplication across coordinator modules.
  • Extract shared utilities into utils.py: slugify functions, type coercion, device info builder, and rolling window computation.
  • Create HistoryMixin for shared history persistence logic between host and group coordinators.
  • Centralize security status mappings in const.py.
  • Fix async generator type annotation in button.py.
  • Remove redundant history flag assignments in coordinator logic.
  • Pre-compile regex patterns for improved performance.

1.1.14

  • Remove deprecated HACS metadata (country) to match the current HACS specification.
  • Run the HACS validation workflow with default checks by dropping the custom ignore override.

1.1.13

  • Add a HACS validation workflow and badge so each PR/push runs the official HACS checks automatically.
  • Align manifests with current HACS/Home Assistant requirements (key ordering, supported fields only).
  • Declare a config-entry-only schema to satisfy hassfest validation for setup hooks.

1.1.12

  • Validate host entries against RFC 1123 hostnames plus IPv4/IPv6 literals directly in the config flow to prevent mis-typed endpoints.
  • The connection test now parses the dnsdist statistics JSON and verifies required counters before setup completes, catching wrong URLs or non-dnsdist services early.

1.1.11

  • Further streamline rolling-window rate calculations for host and group coordinators to minimize allocations and disk writes.

1.1.10

  • Sanitize dnsdist backend identifiers used by REST services, rejecting control characters and logging invalid requests.

1.1.9

  • Preserve hourly and daily dnsdist query history across Home Assistant restarts so rolling rate sensors stay accurate.

1.1.8

  • Preload the dnsdist sensor and button platforms during integration startup to avoid blocking import warnings on Home Assistant 2025.10.
  • Provide a compatibility fallback for the removed COUNT unit constant so count-based sensors keep their units on new Home Assistant releases.

1.1.7

  • Report dnsdist monotonic counters with Home Assistant's count unit to keep Recorder statistics enabled.

1.1.6

  • Added per-entry control over filtering rule sensors: hosts default off, groups default on, and both can be changed later.
  • Introduced an option to automatically delete existing filtering rule sensors when the feature is turned off.

1.1.5

  • Refined the hourly and daily request sensors to interpolate counters precisely at the window horizon, preventing inflated totals when samples span the boundary.

1.1.4

  • Corrected hourly and daily request totals to report the actual rolling-window volume instead of extrapolated estimates.

1.1.3

  • Reuse Home Assistant's shared HTTP session for config validation, data updates, and services to meet 2025.10 requirements.

1.1.2

  • Switch to REST-only services: keep clear_cache, enable_server, disable_server, get_backends; remove console-dependent services.
  • Buttons: only Clear Cache remains (confirmation enabled); group button applies to all members.
  • README updated to reflect REST-only behavior and the single button.

1.1.1

  • Added Requests per Hour (req_per_hour) and Requests per Day (req_per_day) sensors with integer rounding.
  • Fixed duplicate device name in sensor display names by using metric-only labels.

1.1.0

  • HA 2025.10 compatibility affirmed.
  • Stable entity modeling for Recorder (counters TOTAL_INCREASING; percentages/uptime MEASUREMENT).
  • Robust device identifiers and clean diagnostics.
  • HACS/manifest alignment.

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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