Pfsense DNS confused me at first. It had me for a few days. Then I found the Host Overrides and configured all the static ip hosts in my environment.
DNS Resolver
DNS Resolver was pretty easy to configure in Pfsense. Nothing complex or hard about getting this set up and then even configured with DHCP.
There are about a million guides on getting this setup. It is relatively straight forward.
Setting up Clients
Ok, be sure to edit netplan or whatever network config tool to add the pfsense server as a resolver. Check your /etc/resolv.conf to make sure it’s pointing to the right spot.
For static clients, where I got stuck at least, check /etc/hosts and make sure the 127.0.0.1 server-name.domain-name server-name line exists.
After configuring the static client, and this is where I got hung up, in the Services -> DNS Resolver -> General Settings Page, Check “Host Overrides” and add the host to that section so the host exists.
After adding it to the pfsense box, give DNS a minute and then try the nslookup from a different server. Viola - it should work.