Man, this is the video I could've really used when I was getting into HA. It's a great bit of software, but they really lack in explaining these basic things in an understandable way.
The HomeAssistant website didnt make the distintion between addons and integrations very clear so I thought that the docker version would be terrible. Thank you for clarifying this.
Not sure I understand it perfectly yet, but this IS the video I was looking for. The home assistant documentation itself is rather vague about the differences. I have watched other videos about the same topic but sometimes one person's words land while another's don't. Thanks for the video.
Quick correction to: "You kind of have to dedicate an entire computer to running home assistant OS". It's entirely viable to use a VM to run homeassistant, either through a bare metal hypervisor like proxmox, or an embedded one like virtualbox. Running home assistant OS inside a VM is supported, stable, and frees up the system. It does require a little more technical knowledge to set up, though.
I'm running HA on a Synology NAS running DSM 7 via Docker. Evidently there isnt great USB support to be able to run a Z-wave or Zigbee dongle. So that's one reason why running in a VM might not a good option.
@@ericmcgrane8000 Actually I'm running HA on my unraid system as a VM and I can passthrough any USB devices I want, so I don't see an issue here. Docker didn't suit my needs no I needed to install HA like this and I'm glad I did so
Home Assistant OS only recognizes USB storage devices (and the FSTAB file is password locked). So if you want to run it on hardware with SATA or SAS drives, you’re out of luck unless you install it on a hypervisor virtual machine. This way you can provide ‘USB’ storage to HASS without it seeing the actual hardware.
It really seems too bad that home assistant isn't designed in a way that it can be used reliably with add-ons within a broader operating system that can be set up to do other things. I got that there's some programming difficulties with putting it together like that, but it would seem far more efficient for a lot of users to be really able to have the full convenience of it on an efficiently run device. I think the closest one could do to this would be to virtualize the home assistant operating system, without a lot of hassle an issues. The thing about that though is that that presumably as much more resource intensive than if one could even do the equivalent of what HAOS does with dockers. It would be nice to just have proper packages that would work within a package manager, run natively, and resolve dependencies and such the way that the systems are designed to. I think Home Assistant would see far more used if it could be used that way, and that might be its biggest barrier to adoption. Having to dedicate a computer to it, by expensive hardware, or jump through a lot of hoops just makes it much harder to get going and simply experiment with things.
Your videos are top-grade! 🏅 I like how you're explaining advanced topics in an understandable way. I hope that many people will take full control of their system because of your videos. The vendor lock-in products (e.g. Philips Hue) are an easy way too start, but they're too expensive, less flexible/powerful and Home Assistant is simply way more fun! Keep up the good work! 💪🏅
Thank you very much! I also started my home automation journey with Philips Hue and wanted very soon after that to find a way to get away from their locked in eco system. Shame though, they still make the best light bulbs - luckily I can use them with my Zigbee USB dongle!
The biggest issue I find with Home Assistant OS when talking about Frigate and Plex integrations that require a lot of storage is adding additional drives to Home Assistant. It's just a little too difficult as of today to add external storage to Home Assistant OS That's why I prefer those things running standalone. Add-ons like Deconz however are quite handy if you want everything in one place.
I saw a top tip for HA where somebody was running their zigbee network on a Pi3 that then sent everything to their nuc/HA. It meant that when you restart your HA, you won't have any repairing of zigbee devices issues.
Nice and clean explanation about the difference. Finally! Thank you for this. I run HA OS in a VM on my Unraid NAS. I also run multiple containers on the same NAS. Because I thought I would miss out on all the Add-ons, I didn't think of making HA a container as well. And went straight to a VM with HA OS. Now I can't wait for your video's on how to migrate from HA OS to a VM :) Keep up the great work!
I initially ran HA OS as a VM on Unraid, but found it getting slower and slower as I added more add-ons. It seemed like the VM had endless resource needs. After I moved HA to a container, it's been running great. I've got everything that can running as a separate container and either integrating to HA (Node Red, MQTT,) or have the container setup in its "2mqtt" variant (like zwavejs2mqtt). HA is then basically just the coordinator. It's been running really well.
Thank you so much for your time making these Docker / HA series videos, I have a mini PC that I have Ubuntu on, and decided to add HA as a container on docker. Being new to HA, I first struggled for not being able to install addon onto HA, but after watching your videos it opens up a tons of possiblilities to my current setup. Again, appreciated!
I have an unsupported installation which HA knows and shows me info about unsupported installation BUT it's running in docker and has supervisor in a separate container. The cool thing is that supervisor can control other docker containers and all works like it should. I'm running it on RPi4 with ubuntu.
I hear a lot of people running this method and it works perfectly fine for them. I would just always be worried about a future update to Home Assistant that breaks this type of configuration.
@@HomeAutomationGuy as long as everything is backed up it will be fine. I’m running rpi Debian 64 (just released by raspberry) and it too says it’s unsupported but not really sure why. I know someone who has had an unsupported os for well over a year. No issues.
Very nice to have found a fairly concise and technical channel. The biggest risk in building HA as an integral part of a home is robustness. Particularly pairing to the devices themselves. I would love to hear about strategies for making a HA setup as resilient as possible. E.g. are there ways to back up the zigbee device network itself? Usin wifi, you could assign IP's to mac adresses statically. Are there anything similar for zigbee and HA? Having multiple containers that need to talk to each other, you would want that configuration backed up too, so e.g. after an update that brakes something, you could rollback everything to last known working state. Do you have solution for that?
Looking forward to seeing the new videos! Just got into HA 4 weeks ago and this is amae. Running on RPi 4, 4 GB and migrated to 500GB USB, and have maybe 400 entities reporting... Like you said it all be soon before the RPi melts.
Fantastic presentation. You are really good at this. The info flow rate perfectly matches my uptake rate. And focusing on precisely what we need to know is so good. Keep it up friend.
I run HA in a docker container and it has supervisor as well as addins and integrations. Basically it looks just like the HA OS version. Running on a PI4 booted from SSD. I also use portainer to manage the other containers for things like grafana, influxdb etc And if you get everything working in a standard HA OS installation and then back it up, wipe the SSD and install say Raspian 64 and then HA supervisor in a docker and then restore your backup, it will create all the containers.
I'm looking forward to follow this series. Running HassOS on a Pi with the Raspbee zigbee gateway integrated. I got a small ThinkCentre ready and I ordered a Conbee USB gateway - I'm ready 🙂
I'm about to jump in into HA but not really sure which installation is the best HA OS or Containers... Maybe I'll choose OS since I don't really know how to maintain the containers but it's a shame because i won't be using the resources of my NUC at a 100 % with HA OS... Good video btw thanks
Start with the OS. You can do quite a bit with Home Assistant Add-Ons, which are essentially just Docker Containers under the hood, and you can very easily max out that CPU with those.
I have tried them all multiple times and every time i have returned to the one installed in a VM, so finally bought a mini pc for less that $100 and since then never bothered to think about options.
You could also instal in a VM and host it with other VM apps which do not play nice with docker and still have the high availability at that. Proxmox, Ubuntu kinux, even Synology have that. With file snapshots you can backup and restore entire installation on a fly. Your NUC could be your host for such solution. Have one VM for production and second as test. You could even have an automatic failover. I am just getting started with home automation. Still learning how to integrate (if even possible) devices from different vendors using different communication protocols:zigbee from aqaea, Arlo, Eufy ... it would be nice to have one app to control different workflows under one app.
Oh. I wasn't aware that running your own containers inside HAOS isn't actually supported. I'm currently running Home Assistant on Docker with Alpine VM along with other containers (pihole, cloudflare dns) and was thinking of migrating to bare metal HAOS to get the addon support. I no longer want it anymore. Bummer :(
And why don’t you consider creation of a Linux virtual machine host running HA as a guest OS? I’m talking about a VM hostel through KVM, VirtualBox etc. This will let you have all the benefits of HA OS and all the flexibility that Linux host provides.
My main motivation for looking closer at the docker container option is that from all my investigations there are no drivers installed in HAOS for video hardware acceleration, so when running frigate (even with a coral device) it's being decoded thru software and using CPU.
You can also install Proxmox...on it you can install home assistant operating system on separate virtual machine and docker on separate for other stuff.
Nice! I have a Intel NUC as well running Home Assistant OS. Been tempted to move over to containers instead. Will definitely give it a try and follow your guides!
I honestly think you are way downplaying the benefit of Addons and the benefit of direct integration in the HA UI. I don't necessarily think you should be running Plex and every other service in there, but there are a number of incredibly beneficial add-ons such as ESPHome, Visual Code Server, Terminal, others. To get the best of both worlds, I run Proxmox on a NUC-like device. I have HAOS running as a VM. This has the benefit that I can take a snapshot of the VM before running upgrades. If the upgrade fails in any way, I can rollback the snapshot and work on the issue at my leisure. I also have a "Proxmox Container" (think of this as a lightweight VM, but I could just be running a VM, too) that runs Alpine Linux (because it's lightweight) where I install other docker containers (always using docker compose). This computer happily runs both HAOS, with its Add-ons (Docker containers) as well as I have my own docker containers, too, where I could run things like PiHole. IMO Proxmox is pretty easy to learn and offers huge benefits to the Home Assistant / home lab user.
What do you think about a variation that combines the two (best of both worlds?): 1) running HA OS in a VM, 2) running *additional* services (that are not available in the HA OS) as VMs or containers?
I had considered that as well for my own setup. But then I thought that if I was going to run the additional services in VMs or containers anyway, then I may as well run it all that way! The additional services need the same "supervision" as HA anyway (Backups, updates, restarting when failed etc) so I may as well build one solution that solves for all
@@HomeAutomationGuy Good point about needing the additional "supervision". When you add an add-on in this way, how do you configure it to appear in the side-bar?
I just installed containerized HA on Docker and loving it so far. However, not being a container expert nor having had the time so far to investigate, how do I speed up my container virtual NIC? Speed Test is showing 40-80MB download while on bare metal I have 300MB download. :o
Excellent explanation. Loved it. I've written my own iot-stack (dbus services written in C++) for managing custom iot-devices and these services has to run on same device where HA is running. This is why I'd chosen HA core and I get freedom to run other services like printer, pi hole etcs.
I have enjoyed and have used your videos. Thank you very much. I too run HA in docker compose, but cannot find how to integrate Frigate with it. Would you put together a video on how you connect the two. All I can find is how to add Frigate with an Integration or Add On which isn’t supported with a container. :(
I'm running HomeAssistant in "Supervised" mode under Debian 11, which in turn runs in a KVM virtual machine in my TrueNAS Scale NAS. The NAS is located well down in the basement of my house, far out of reach for any Zigbee dongle to be connected there. So I need a TCP/IP based Zigbee coordinator (ZigStarGW) somewhere in the LAN on the upper floor. Same for the HomeMatic (not HomeMaticIP) radio gateway (868MHz) (15 HomeMatic TRVs to control...). Both require Special Linux drivers - which cannot easily bei installed in HassOS. Therefore the Supervised version, which is a Docker Container in the Debian Linux VM. Works like a charm :-) HA Addons (I need RaspberryMatic Addon (HomeMaticIP_local Addon + Integration), Frigate, MotionEye etc etc are installed through HA - technically they end up being Docker containers on the same Debian Linux VM. HA itself ist updated from within HA as usual, the Addons (Docker containers) ad well. The only thing I did not bother to find out is how to update the HA Docker Container itself....
That's a cool solution! I was considering running Zigbee2MQTT on a Raspberry Pi, plugging the dongle into that and then placing it more into the middle of my house. That way it can process the Zigbee messages and send them to MQTT over IP to the Mosquitto server in the basement.
@@HomeAutomationGuy That works as well - the drawback may be that the Raspi is quite "noisy" with radio waves and may very well interfere with Zigbee radio waves in itself - and as I have a house where 2.4 GHz communication is bad anyway (thick old walls...). Therefore I didn't want any USB-Dongle solution. BTW, I'm using ZHA, not Zigbee2Mqtt, but well ... (68 Zigbee devices until now)
Thanks for this video. I will hang on to your coat tails and follow you on the journey. It's a great idea as it can be a bit daunting to move to an new platform.
Interesting video! I'm busy installing HA on my NUC, but can't get the HA landing page accessible on other devices on the same network, so I'm thinking of installing it in Docker or Proxmox. This could also be the moment to move to Ubuntu if I find the right reasons. So my main questions to you: Why Docker and not Proxmox? Why Ubuntu and not Windows 10/11? It would be cool and very helpful to get an answer to those 2 questions.
this will be great! I have HA running in docker, made sense to me since I already have docker running a few services. I always seam to have a hard time getting the HA config / web gui to show the new service, that i have running in its own docker container. it would be awesome if that's covered. i get stuck like editing the ha config file not sure what to put and where to put it.
I'd like to see a build with home assistant and the ability to house and monitor a home built surveillance system Blu Iris, zoneminder or Ispy for example.
I sort of do this using RTSP streams and Frigate on Docker, with the HA integration to send me alerts when it detects people... or foxes. I'll be covering this in a future video.
Your videos have been so helpful! Thank you! Quick question: I have home assistant running, docker, protainer, and duplicati up and running. Im moving this month and will have a new IP address. Is my only option starting from scratch? TIA
I would suggest starting Home Assistant from scratch in a new container, but you should be able to re-use all those other services. It's always nice to start a new house/setup with a fresh install of Home Assistant, so that you can properly name your areas, entities, and other things in the context of your new space.
Amazing video - new subscriber....looking forward to an amazing 'learning' journey. Can you add a Table of Contents to your videos - to make them easier to find the others?
Can home assistant be installed in orange pi one. I only run 6 smart plugs energy meter for solar and dont need to run hundreds of them. So im looking for smaller setup. Which instalation should i use? thanks..
The orange pi one doesn't look very powerful, so I'm not sure how it will work. Do you have one already? If so why not try installing it on there and seeing how it performs. Good luck!
@@HomeAutomationGuy I manage to install latest version of HA on orange pi one Armbian Jammy edge 5.17.. installed docker, portainer, samba, cups docker compose was the hardest but I found a script that install docker compose via pip, works fine not seing any slow down .. using tuya integration with six smartplugs...
Looking forward to the series! I run HA in a docker container via Unraid , so I assume most of what you will cover will apply to an Unraid environment as well. Any chance you could add in any hints for Unraid users where things might be slightly different? On the whole, I've been very happy running HA as a non-supervised container. As a matter of fact, I try to run everything I can outside of HA to avoid the single point of failure (Yeah, I know Unraid is itself a LARGE SPoF, but you get the point). For example, I run my ZWave stuff through Zwavejs2mqtt rather than a Zwavejs integration to HA. Is that a crazy approach? While I've worked my way through a few problem spots, I'm always looking for better ways to run this setup.
Can you make 1 or 2 example videos on setting up HA with containers and some of the basics such as using VScode to edit configuration files and how you created your backups?
That's the plan, I'll be releasing videos exactly like that over the next few weeks. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel so you know when they're released!
I have a few basic things running on HA but would like to know (graphically if possible) how the configuration yaml on the os device and the files on something like an esp32 device. I did manage to brick my raspberrypi awhile back but named to recover it by locating and editing the configuration file in the OS (not altogether easy to understand but logical when I got there). Enjoyed the video BTW.
I’m running the Pi4 w/ssd and some of my automations are getting slow to work. Running MQTT, zigbee2mqtt, nore-red. I also have a Pi 3 running pihole and a samba media folder, I haft thought about moving some pets over to it, but maybe it’s time for another upgrade.
In order to send Signal app notifications you need to use a special Docker container. I thought it made sense to provide subscribers with an understanding of Containers first. The Signal video is coming soon, don't worry!
Man how can I use my raspi with home assistant as a Plex media server, I thought the only way was to have a Nas server as I couldn't find the Plex add-on in the store. Good video btw help us beginners understand more about this awesome project.
I have read that it is possible to run HA operating system on windows and still use your pc for other stuff like office and web, this is not what you Say here. Could you please clarify ?
I got one for you; Let's put these docker containers in a kubernets cluster. I heard the store Home Assistant store didn't work in kubernetes, probably because its in a container. Do you think you can do that? Also I want to use Frigate. Could that be in the cluster as well..now that would be a super setup. Do you think it's possible?
I am sure that you can use Kubernetes, but I am not sure why you would need to. It would just add another layer of complexity for me, but if you're a kube fan and comfortable with it then go right ahead!
@@HomeAutomationGuythank you for the generous reply, I love your channel. Kubernetes would be more expensive too, I guess you would need a Coral Tpu and ZWave dongle for each physical machine. That is my guess.
I've got a small descent server (6 core - 32gb) running W11. I use it for some small jobs (nzb, lms) but nothing spectacular. Is it acceptable to run HA in a docker on this machine? Like I stated it will be used for some small jobs in W11. Thanks in advance!!!
I like your videos so much. Correct me if I'm wrong as far as I know proxmox use only bare metal installation. So it cannot be installed on windows and the pic shown in the video which shows that it can be done at 7.40. Thanks again for your videos
Having used HA OS for a few years now, I'm getting into docker. I am really looking forward to the part where you migrate the HassOs to the Docker-version. I got quite a few addons/integrations and so on that I just don't want to setup all new again (although, repetition is the best way to learn). Really looking forward to this series :)
the feature i missed most from supervised installation is the ingress. Are you able to access ESPHOME, frigate pages within homeassistant instead of their own service page?
You can load their own service pages into Home Assistant using an iFrame panel. I explain how to do this in my next video which is coming out this week!
Hi very nice explanation about important basics of HA which we can rarely find among other channels,but I’ve a simple question ,as I’m about to have HA installed on Raspberry Pi 4-4G Ram,do the add ons of the supervised OS have something like making a NAS with another Hard Disk or SSD?,as I need it and as you mentioned the Raspberry Pi will be dedicated only to the HAOS on the opposite of have a core one which allow me then to have (NAS) through open media vault I can’t make a decision as I want the supervised OS and in the mean time I want a NAS,so can you help me towards that? Thank you very much in advance 🌹
Now just so that I got it right: I want to run HA in a container and use it as dashboard/Interface for some MQTT sensors. I can only do this with the HA OS. Right? Or can I do this in container as well? I new to the party, so....
So looking forward to this series.... Have just gotten into HA and installed it on a RP3 to do some tests. Am building a house this year so will be putting a lot of devices into HA so have been trying to figure out what is the best install. I figured RPi will out grow my use cases so was considering a dedicated install on a NUC (but have just bought a HP Mini) so was going to put it on that but I figured a dedicated install was a bit of a waste so this option of Linux with Docker seems like a winner!! I am tech savy but there are some new areas her for me... Docker and Linux. I reckon I can learn Docker ok but Linux may require some more effort. Also a question, why did you go for Ubuntu over Debian when Supervisor on Debian is supported by HA?
I went with Ubuntu because I've used it previously and was familiar with it. There's absolutely no reason why you can't use Debian, it's up to you what you're more comfortable with. There should be very little difference between the two for this context.
You strike me as the type of guy that can hold a full conversation in assembly language.
Man, this is the video I could've really used when I was getting into HA. It's a great bit of software, but they really lack in explaining these basic things in an understandable way.
The HomeAssistant website didnt make the distintion between addons and integrations very clear so I thought that the docker version would be terrible. Thank you for clarifying this.
Glad I could help!
Not sure I understand it perfectly yet, but this IS the video I was looking for.
The home assistant documentation itself is rather vague about the differences.
I have watched other videos about the same topic but sometimes one person's words land while another's don't.
Thanks for the video.
Exactly, right?
@@QuirkiestIt was. But not sure how accurate the information still is after 2 years.
It's about 24 monthly updates later 😂
Good luck!
Although I don't have home automation I'm interested in it. So I'm glad to have found this channel where I can learn more.
Quick correction to: "You kind of have to dedicate an entire computer to running home assistant OS".
It's entirely viable to use a VM to run homeassistant, either through a bare metal hypervisor like proxmox, or an embedded one like virtualbox. Running home assistant OS inside a VM is supported, stable, and frees up the system. It does require a little more technical knowledge to set up, though.
I'm running HA on a Synology NAS running DSM 7 via Docker. Evidently there isnt great USB support to be able to run a Z-wave or Zigbee dongle. So that's one reason why running in a VM might not a good option.
@@ericmcgrane8000 Actually I'm running HA on my unraid system as a VM and I can passthrough any USB devices I want, so I don't see an issue here. Docker didn't suit my needs no I needed to install HA like this and I'm glad I did so
Home Assistant OS only recognizes USB storage devices (and the FSTAB file is password locked). So if you want to run it on hardware with SATA or SAS drives, you’re out of luck unless you install it on a hypervisor virtual machine. This way you can provide ‘USB’ storage to HASS without it seeing the actual hardware.
It really seems too bad that home assistant isn't designed in a way that it can be used reliably with add-ons within a broader operating system that can be set up to do other things. I got that there's some programming difficulties with putting it together like that, but it would seem far more efficient for a lot of users to be really able to have the full convenience of it on an efficiently run device. I think the closest one could do to this would be to virtualize the home assistant operating system, without a lot of hassle an issues. The thing about that though is that that presumably as much more resource intensive than if one could even do the equivalent of what HAOS does with dockers. It would be nice to just have proper packages that would work within a package manager, run natively, and resolve dependencies and such the way that the systems are designed to. I think Home Assistant would see far more used if it could be used that way, and that might be its biggest barrier to adoption. Having to dedicate a computer to it, by expensive hardware, or jump through a lot of hoops just makes it much harder to get going and simply experiment with things.
I run HA in a VM on Unraid and it's been great! Everything else I run in docker.
Your videos are top-grade! 🏅 I like how you're explaining advanced topics in an understandable way. I hope that many people will take full control of their system because of your videos. The vendor lock-in products (e.g. Philips Hue) are an easy way too start, but they're too expensive, less flexible/powerful and Home Assistant is simply way more fun! Keep up the good work! 💪🏅
Thank you very much! I also started my home automation journey with Philips Hue and wanted very soon after that to find a way to get away from their locked in eco system. Shame though, they still make the best light bulbs - luckily I can use them with my Zigbee USB dongle!
Wow, I've been using ha for a long time, and this video explained so much I didn't understand, thanks!
The biggest issue I find with Home Assistant OS when talking about Frigate and Plex integrations that require a lot of storage is adding additional drives to Home Assistant. It's just a little too difficult as of today to add external storage to Home Assistant OS That's why I prefer those things running standalone. Add-ons like Deconz however are quite handy if you want everything in one place.
Awesome overview, sir! This video needs to be embedded on the Install page in the HA docs.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
I saw a top tip for HA where somebody was running their zigbee network on a Pi3 that then sent everything to their nuc/HA. It meant that when you restart your HA, you won't have any repairing of zigbee devices issues.
Nice and clean explanation about the difference. Finally! Thank you for this. I run HA OS in a VM on my Unraid NAS. I also run multiple containers on the same NAS. Because I thought I would miss out on all the Add-ons, I didn't think of making HA a container as well. And went straight to a VM with HA OS. Now I can't wait for your video's on how to migrate from HA OS to a VM :) Keep up the great work!
I initially ran HA OS as a VM on Unraid, but found it getting slower and slower as I added more add-ons. It seemed like the VM had endless resource needs. After I moved HA to a container, it's been running great. I've got everything that can running as a separate container and either integrating to HA (Node Red, MQTT,) or have the container setup in its "2mqtt" variant (like zwavejs2mqtt). HA is then basically just the coordinator. It's been running really well.
Thank you so much for your time making these Docker / HA series videos, I have a mini PC that I have Ubuntu on, and decided to add HA as a container on docker. Being new to HA, I first struggled for not being able to install addon onto HA, but after watching your videos it opens up a tons of possiblilities to my current setup. Again, appreciated!
So can you actually use add ons on the docker version or not?
Thanks
1 year late but yes you can… Core’s version cannot.. HA OS & HA Supervised can
Looking forward to the series! I run HA in a docker container via Unraid
I have an unsupported installation which HA knows and shows me info about unsupported installation BUT it's running in docker and has supervisor in a separate container. The cool thing is that supervisor can control other docker containers and all works like it should. I'm running it on RPi4 with ubuntu.
I hear a lot of people running this method and it works perfectly fine for them. I would just always be worried about a future update to Home Assistant that breaks this type of configuration.
@@HomeAutomationGuy as long as everything is backed up it will be fine.
I’m running rpi Debian 64 (just released by raspberry) and it too says it’s unsupported but not really sure why. I know someone who has had an unsupported os for well over a year. No issues.
Very nice to have found a fairly concise and technical channel.
The biggest risk in building HA as an integral part of a home is robustness. Particularly pairing to the devices themselves. I would love to hear about strategies for making a HA setup as resilient as possible. E.g. are there ways to back up the zigbee device network itself? Usin wifi, you could assign IP's to mac adresses statically. Are there anything similar for zigbee and HA?
Having multiple containers that need to talk to each other, you would want that configuration backed up too, so e.g. after an update that brakes something, you could rollback everything to last known working state. Do you have solution for that?
This docker install would be great along that you also provided a stack/compose that includes all the necessary inage containers.
Excited for this series. Mainly because I want to run frigate on and rtsptoweb. Docker is where it’s at.
That intro was crazy, just 25 seconds of bro talking DIRECTLY to me lol
I can't wait for the next one! I have an old pc I would love to put docker and ha on!
Looking forward to seeing the new videos! Just got into HA 4 weeks ago and this is amae. Running on RPi 4, 4 GB and migrated to 500GB USB, and have maybe 400 entities reporting... Like you said it all be soon before the RPi melts.
Welcome to the rabbit hole :) Lets see how deep we go!
Great video thanks. Looking forward to the upcoming series.
Would be interested in learning more about your use of the Coral TPU
Looks like it's being used for Frigate. I'm interested in the setup details as well. :)
Fantastic presentation. You are really good at this. The info flow rate perfectly matches my uptake rate. And focusing on precisely what we need to know is so good. Keep it up friend.
Thank you!
I run HA in a docker container and it has supervisor as well as addins and integrations. Basically it looks just like the HA OS version. Running on a PI4 booted from SSD.
I also use portainer to manage the other containers for things like grafana, influxdb etc
And if you get everything working in a standard HA OS installation and then back it up, wipe the SSD and install say Raspian 64 and then HA supervisor in a docker and then restore your backup, it will create all the containers.
can you please provide detailed explaining on this?
I'm looking forward to follow this series. Running HassOS on a Pi with the Raspbee zigbee gateway integrated. I got a small ThinkCentre ready and I ordered a Conbee USB gateway - I'm ready 🙂
Lets do this! Feel free to ask any questions along the way!
Can’t wait!!
This series is so informative!
Thanks for sharing!
I'm about to jump in into HA but not really sure which installation is the best HA OS or Containers... Maybe I'll choose OS since I don't really know how to maintain the containers but it's a shame because i won't be using the resources of my NUC at a 100 % with HA OS... Good video btw thanks
Start with the OS. You can do quite a bit with Home Assistant Add-Ons, which are essentially just Docker Containers under the hood, and you can very easily max out that CPU with those.
Thanks
I run the HassOS VM n hyper-v, works great, easy to backup.
I have tried them all multiple times and every time i have returned to the one installed in a VM, so finally bought a mini pc for less that $100 and since then never bothered to think about options.
Pi5 4gb and nvme 128gb ssd, skyconnect (zha) sonoff dongle-p (z2m) and z-wave, just over 1200 entities and hardly stressing any hardware at all.
You could also instal in a VM and host it with other VM apps which do not play nice with docker and still have the high availability at that. Proxmox, Ubuntu kinux, even Synology have that. With file snapshots you can backup and restore entire installation on a fly. Your NUC could be your host for such solution. Have one VM for production and second as test. You could even have an automatic failover. I am just getting started with home automation. Still learning how to integrate (if even possible) devices from different vendors using different communication protocols:zigbee from aqaea, Arlo, Eufy ... it would be nice to have one app to control different workflows under one app.
Oh. I wasn't aware that running your own containers inside HAOS isn't actually supported. I'm currently running Home Assistant on Docker with Alpine VM along with other containers (pihole, cloudflare dns) and was thinking of migrating to bare metal HAOS to get the addon support. I no longer want it anymore. Bummer :(
This is exactly what I'm looking for right now! Please also include NodeRed and InfluxDB+Grafana too.
And why don’t you consider creation of a Linux virtual machine host running HA as a guest OS? I’m talking about a VM hostel through KVM, VirtualBox etc. This will let you have all the benefits of HA OS and all the flexibility that Linux host provides.
My main motivation for looking closer at the docker container option is that from all my investigations there are no drivers installed in HAOS for video hardware acceleration, so when running frigate (even with a coral device) it's being decoded thru software and using CPU.
Docker does my head in. Looking forward to your videos.
I'll do my best to explain what I know about it (And it's not everything). As they say, I just know enough to be dangerous!
You can also install Proxmox...on it you can install home assistant operating system on separate virtual machine and docker on separate for other stuff.
I'm very close to giving Proxmox a go - so many people sing it's praises!
Nice! I have a Intel NUC as well running Home Assistant OS. Been tempted to move over to containers instead. Will definitely give it a try and follow your guides!
If your current setup is working for you, no need to change it! I would only switch if you have a specific need to
I honestly think you are way downplaying the benefit of Addons and the benefit of direct integration in the HA UI. I don't necessarily think you should be running Plex and every other service in there, but there are a number of incredibly beneficial add-ons such as ESPHome, Visual Code Server, Terminal, others.
To get the best of both worlds, I run Proxmox on a NUC-like device. I have HAOS running as a VM. This has the benefit that I can take a snapshot of the VM before running upgrades. If the upgrade fails in any way, I can rollback the snapshot and work on the issue at my leisure. I also have a "Proxmox Container" (think of this as a lightweight VM, but I could just be running a VM, too) that runs Alpine Linux (because it's lightweight) where I install other docker containers (always using docker compose). This computer happily runs both HAOS, with its Add-ons (Docker containers) as well as I have my own docker containers, too, where I could run things like PiHole. IMO Proxmox is pretty easy to learn and offers huge benefits to the Home Assistant / home lab user.
What do you think about a variation that combines the two (best of both worlds?): 1) running HA OS in a VM, 2) running *additional* services (that are not available in the HA OS) as VMs or containers?
I had considered that as well for my own setup. But then I thought that if I was going to run the additional services in VMs or containers anyway, then I may as well run it all that way! The additional services need the same "supervision" as HA anyway (Backups, updates, restarting when failed etc) so I may as well build one solution that solves for all
@@HomeAutomationGuy Good point about needing the additional "supervision". When you add an add-on in this way, how do you configure it to appear in the side-bar?
(Cue next video. 😀 )
@@74357175 panels might help you out for such a scenario
www.home-assistant.io/integrations/panel_/
@@74357175 Exactly!
I am interested in the weekly updates of a hass docker container with portainer.
A video about this is coming soon!
I just installed containerized HA on Docker and loving it so far. However, not being a container expert nor having had the time so far to investigate, how do I speed up my container virtual NIC? Speed Test is showing 40-80MB download while on bare metal I have 300MB download. :o
I was running HA as a docker, and the it would not alow me to access Raberry's GPIO pins. Such a shame. Thanks for the video.
Great video. Thank you for sharing all those excellent knowledge and experiences with us. Looking forward to seeing more videos from you.
Thank you Ali! Glad you got some value from it and there'll be more coming soon!
I'm curious about the others containers! Great video!
Excellent explanation. Loved it.
I've written my own iot-stack (dbus services written in C++) for managing custom iot-devices and these services has to run on same device where HA is running. This is why I'd chosen HA core and I get freedom to run other services like printer, pi hole etcs.
That's way above my skill level - well done!
This is really interesting, HAG. It's a great idea. Go for it. I look forward to the journey.
Thank you!
I have enjoyed and have used your videos. Thank you very much. I too run HA in docker compose, but cannot find how to integrate Frigate with it. Would you put together a video on how you connect the two. All I can find is how to add Frigate with an Integration or Add On which isn’t supported with a container. :(
Check out my Frigate video series, which is on my channel
The line that made me to subscribe: "nerds that think python is a decent programming language"
😬🫣
Is it ok to install it on Synology NAS?
I wanted HA OS with Supervisor so I just installed the OS as a VM on my Pi4 and that meant I still get easy access to add ons
Hello, Great work
Can I ask which model of intel nuc worked for you or what are the minimum specs for a luxurious setup
thanks again
I have an Intel i5 NUC, but I can't recall the exact model
Docker for the win. Once you learn docker you're home lab becomes easier to manage.
sounds good to me, ill start with this series.
Do I need to defrag my bios ? Or just over lock my hdmi ?
Don't forget to polish the flux capacitor
@@HomeAutomationGuy it's @ 3.6 gigawatts. 88mph..???
I'm running HomeAssistant in "Supervised" mode under Debian 11, which in turn runs in a KVM virtual machine in my TrueNAS Scale NAS. The NAS is located well down in the basement of my house, far out of reach for any Zigbee dongle to be connected there.
So I need a TCP/IP based Zigbee coordinator (ZigStarGW) somewhere in the LAN on the upper floor. Same for the HomeMatic (not HomeMaticIP) radio gateway (868MHz) (15 HomeMatic TRVs to control...).
Both require Special Linux drivers - which cannot easily bei installed in HassOS. Therefore the Supervised version, which is a Docker Container in the Debian Linux VM.
Works like a charm :-)
HA Addons (I need RaspberryMatic Addon (HomeMaticIP_local Addon + Integration), Frigate, MotionEye etc etc are installed through HA - technically they end up being Docker containers on the same Debian Linux VM.
HA itself ist updated from within HA as usual, the Addons (Docker containers) ad well.
The only thing I did not bother to find out is how to update the HA Docker Container itself....
That's a cool solution! I was considering running Zigbee2MQTT on a Raspberry Pi, plugging the dongle into that and then placing it more into the middle of my house. That way it can process the Zigbee messages and send them to MQTT over IP to the Mosquitto server in the basement.
@@HomeAutomationGuy That works as well - the drawback may be that the Raspi is quite "noisy" with radio waves and may very well interfere with Zigbee radio waves in itself - and as I have a house where 2.4 GHz communication is bad anyway (thick old walls...). Therefore I didn't want any USB-Dongle solution.
BTW, I'm using ZHA, not Zigbee2Mqtt, but well ... (68 Zigbee devices until now)
Love this, perfect timing!
Thanks for this video. I will hang on to your coat tails and follow you on the journey. It's a great idea as it can be a bit daunting to move to an new platform.
Sometimes the best things in life are a little bit daunting at first ;-)
Looking forward to your series 👍
Interesting video! I'm busy installing HA on my NUC, but can't get the HA landing page accessible on other devices on the same network, so I'm thinking of installing it in Docker or Proxmox. This could also be the moment to move to Ubuntu if I find the right reasons. So my main questions to you: Why Docker and not Proxmox? Why Ubuntu and not Windows 10/11? It would be cool and very helpful to get an answer to those 2 questions.
this will be great! I have HA running in docker, made sense to me since I already have docker running a few services. I always seam to have a hard time getting the HA config / web gui to show the new service, that i have running in its own docker container. it would be awesome if that's covered. i get stuck like editing the ha config file not sure what to put and where to put it.
I'll be covering this in some of my future videos, and also on my blog. Stay tuned and hopefully we can demistify it for you!
I'd like to see a build with home assistant and the ability to house and monitor a home built surveillance system Blu Iris, zoneminder or Ispy for example.
I sort of do this using RTSP streams and Frigate on Docker, with the HA integration to send me alerts when it detects people... or foxes. I'll be covering this in a future video.
Python is a good programming language. I would request you cover those as well.
Amazing video!
Your videos have been so helpful! Thank you! Quick question: I have home assistant running, docker, protainer, and duplicati up and running. Im moving this month and will have a new IP address. Is my only option starting from scratch? TIA
I would suggest starting Home Assistant from scratch in a new container, but you should be able to re-use all those other services. It's always nice to start a new house/setup with a fresh install of Home Assistant, so that you can properly name your areas, entities, and other things in the context of your new space.
Now what we need is Rancher to manage our Docker(or other) containers ;-)
Amazing video - new subscriber....looking forward to an amazing 'learning' journey. Can you add a Table of Contents to your videos - to make them easier to find the others?
You Sir! Are awesome! Subscribed!..Thanks for all ur content
Can home assistant be installed in orange pi one. I only run 6 smart plugs energy meter for solar and dont need to run hundreds of them. So im looking for smaller setup. Which instalation should i use? thanks..
The orange pi one doesn't look very powerful, so I'm not sure how it will work. Do you have one already? If so why not try installing it on there and seeing how it performs.
Good luck!
@@HomeAutomationGuy I manage to install latest version of HA on orange pi one Armbian Jammy edge 5.17.. installed docker, portainer, samba, cups docker compose was the hardest but I found a script that install docker compose via pip, works fine not seing any slow down .. using tuya integration with six smartplugs...
Looking forward to the series! I run HA in a docker container via Unraid , so I assume most of what you will cover will apply to an Unraid environment as well. Any chance you could add in any hints for Unraid users where things might be slightly different?
On the whole, I've been very happy running HA as a non-supervised container. As a matter of fact, I try to run everything I can outside of HA to avoid the single point of failure (Yeah, I know Unraid is itself a LARGE SPoF, but you get the point). For example, I run my ZWave stuff through Zwavejs2mqtt rather than a Zwavejs integration to HA. Is that a crazy approach? While I've worked my way through a few problem spots, I'm always looking for better ways to run this setup.
Hey Alan, old video but new question. With all your devices are you still running docker or proxmox or standalone HA green?
I'm currently running Proxmox, but I believe all of the methods you mentioned would support all my devices. HA is pretty performant
Very nice explanation. Thank you!
What is the workaround to run ad ons on a HA with Ubuntu on Virtual box?
How do you manage backups using the container install method ?
Can you make 1 or 2 example videos on setting up HA with containers and some of the basics such as using VScode to edit configuration files and how you created your backups?
That's the plan, I'll be releasing videos exactly like that over the next few weeks. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel so you know when they're released!
@@HomeAutomationGuy already done ;)
I have a few basic things running on HA but would like to know (graphically if possible) how the configuration yaml on the os device and the files on something like an esp32 device. I did manage to brick my raspberrypi awhile back but named to recover it by locating and editing the configuration file in the OS (not altogether easy to understand but logical when I got there). Enjoyed the video BTW.
I’m running the Pi4 w/ssd and some of my automations are getting slow to work. Running MQTT, zigbee2mqtt, nore-red. I also have a Pi 3 running pihole and a samba media folder, I haft thought about moving some pets over to it, but maybe it’s time for another upgrade.
Befor you start HA install series, can you please show us how to send Signal app notifications using your brother source code?
In order to send Signal app notifications you need to use a special Docker container. I thought it made sense to provide subscribers with an understanding of Containers first. The Signal video is coming soon, don't worry!
@@HomeAutomationGuy thank you very much, i turned on bell notification, waiting for your new videos :)
Thanks for sharing!
Great video!! Can you please share the link to NUC which you have bought?
I don't think they make it anymore. The model number is a NUC8i5BEK, maybe you can find them on eBay or similar?
Man how can I use my raspi with home assistant as a Plex media server, I thought the only way was to have a Nas server as I couldn't find the Plex add-on in the store. Good video btw help us beginners understand more about this awesome project.
It's available in the community add-ons
github.com/hassio-addons/addon-plex
Hi, how are you backing up your entire HA container to google drive every day, do you have a video about that or link? thanks
I have read that it is possible to run HA operating system on windows and still use your pc for other stuff like office and web, this is not what you Say here. Could you please clarify ?
I got one for you; Let's put these docker containers in a kubernets cluster. I heard the store Home Assistant store didn't work in kubernetes, probably because its in a container. Do you think you can do that? Also I want to use Frigate. Could that be in the cluster as well..now that would be a super setup. Do you think it's possible?
I am sure that you can use Kubernetes, but I am not sure why you would need to. It would just add another layer of complexity for me, but if you're a kube fan and comfortable with it then go right ahead!
@@HomeAutomationGuythank you for the generous reply, I love your channel. Kubernetes would be more expensive too, I guess you would need a Coral Tpu and ZWave dongle for each physical machine. That is my guess.
I've got a small descent server (6 core - 32gb) running W11. I use it for some small jobs (nzb, lms) but nothing spectacular.
Is it acceptable to run HA in a docker on this machine? Like I stated it will be used for some small jobs in W11.
Thanks in advance!!!
I like your videos so much. Correct me if I'm wrong as far as I know proxmox use only bare metal installation. So it cannot be installed on windows and the pic shown in the video which shows that it can be done at 7.40. Thanks again for your videos
You're probably right. I'm not an expert on VMs as I only use Docker in my setup
3:48 - "DVDs ripped legally" LOL - I actually did do that...
Having used HA OS for a few years now, I'm getting into docker. I am really looking forward to the part where you migrate the HassOs to the Docker-version. I got quite a few addons/integrations and so on that I just don't want to setup all new again (although, repetition is the best way to learn). Really looking forward to this series :)
I’ve done exactly this and is fairly simple to do.
Can you really use addons in the container version? I dont think so
@@andersyuran7725 yes you really can. I’m doing it!
Do you watch your video again before posting? You don't show where to get the HomeAssitant OS ISO and how to install it (e.g. on Virtual Box).
From the Home Assistant website
the feature i missed most from supervised installation is the ingress. Are you able to access ESPHOME, frigate pages within homeassistant instead of their own service page?
You can load their own service pages into Home Assistant using an iFrame panel. I explain how to do this in my next video which is coming out this week!
Hi Alan,would u like to review our zigbee curtainbot?
Possibly. I use your blind motors in my smart home and they are fantastic! Can you please email me some details?
Hi very nice explanation about important basics of HA which we can rarely find among other channels,but I’ve a simple question ,as I’m about to have HA installed on Raspberry Pi 4-4G Ram,do the add ons of the supervised OS have something like making a NAS with another Hard Disk or SSD?,as I need it and as you mentioned the Raspberry Pi will be dedicated only to the HAOS on the opposite of have a core one which allow me then to have (NAS) through open media vault
I can’t make a decision as I want the supervised OS and in the mean time I want a NAS,so can you help me towards that?
Thank you very much in advance 🌹
I believe there is some sort of Samba NAS add on available for Home Assistant
Now just so that I got it right:
I want to run HA in a container and use it as dashboard/Interface for some MQTT sensors.
I can only do this with the HA OS. Right?
Or can I do this in container as well?
I new to the party, so....
Use HA Container and Mosquitto for MQTT
So looking forward to this series.... Have just gotten into HA and installed it on a RP3 to do some tests. Am building a house this year so will be putting a lot of devices into HA so have been trying to figure out what is the best install. I figured RPi will out grow my use cases so was considering a dedicated install on a NUC (but have just bought a HP Mini) so was going to put it on that but I figured a dedicated install was a bit of a waste so this option of Linux with Docker seems like a winner!! I am tech savy but there are some new areas her for me... Docker and Linux. I reckon I can learn Docker ok but Linux may require some more effort. Also a question, why did you go for Ubuntu over Debian when Supervisor on Debian is supported by HA?
I went with Ubuntu because I've used it previously and was familiar with it. There's absolutely no reason why you can't use Debian, it's up to you what you're more comfortable with. There should be very little difference between the two for this context.
You jumped over the part on how you setup the visual studio etc....Now im only halfway there to setup HA.. lol
This blog post should hopefully help you out
www.homeautomationguy.io/youtube-videos/living-without-add-ons-on-home-assistant-container/
So if your new to this. I’ve been using Alexa and are thinking about changing to HA hub what is the easiest and what devices would I need?
I would start with the devices you already have and a Home Assistant Yellow.
You got me at the wink!
Thank you sensei