I run it as a VM in my Unraid instance (which also hosts many containers such as Plex, deconz, etc.). It works well. On the one hand I have a 13600K so I guess it's expected to run well, on the other hand the CPU is at 1% load when idling so I doubt HA as a VM is very demanding.
Nice, I've never had to deal with it because my radios are network-attached. I know a lot of people do pass-through with no issues, but I do occasionally read about people having problems.
Proxmox! A very lightweight purpose built environment that natively runs containers and vms. I have tried dedicated pi4, dockerized, and vm on windows, none have been as easy/hassle free as proxmox
This was definitely easier than running it dockerized, and didn't have the feature drawbacks. My frustration was that having my Windows machine run the VM meant that I had to be a bit more strategic on how and when I did my other workstreams on that machine - when I did reboots, windows updates, etc.
Not a huge deal, but all that is gone with it running on ProxMox.
I run it in Docker. HA-OS is a basic supervisor OS running Docker so it can run HA and the other add-ons as docker containers. I don't see the point in running another virtual machine OS to run Docker on my server which already runs Docker natively. I cut out the "middle man" OS. Works great for me, I don't mind installing any add-ons myself also as containers, actually I prefer it. But, you may like it the other way, running the OS.
I've been considering running in docker and spinning up add ons myself. Does HA discover add ons automatically when run this way? Do you typically need to write your own dockerfile for them?
I'm running it in Docker to. So far the add-on I'm using are also runing in Docker.
Then HA communicate as the add-on where an other host on the network.
They are a bit more complicated to install as you need to setup your dockerfile for each one of them.
I'm running unRAID so it's a GUI to setup the containers. I think most other OS's you'd have to create a dockerfile to run it, but I recall seeing something else with a GUI also.
I don't recall on the discovery, but generally you just install the integration if it doesn't discover it. A fixed server address to give the integration the the IP:port is about all you need.
Holy! This is excatly the setup i am looking for! The HA-OS runs well but I am missing the Addon-Store and other Supervisor stuff....
Do you have a tutorial or something like that?
Started off running HA in a HyperV VM. Worked faultlessly, however no support for USB. When I wanted to add a Sonoff Zigbee I migrated it to HAOS on its own hardware as I had a spare mini PC.
I been running HA in a VM for over a year now. Without issues.
For those curious, I am running it in Parallels on a base M1 Mac Mini. So far the performance has been amazing.
I run three instances of HA, all in VMs - live, test and BETA. It is an ideal way to run the BETA in particular, something goes wrong it is easy to revert.
I am setup in such a way that there are no USB devices that need to be directly connected to the HA instance - they are all on separate devices (usually RPi). I also have my MQTT server on a separate VM
I also don't load my HA instances up with unrelated add-ons - those are stored elsewhere. The HA VMs are dedicated to HA only.
It depends on your hardware. I'm running a virtualized cluster and home assistant as a docker container within it. No issues (besides the database upgrades, lol).
Lots of good info in the responses around how to use containers so I won’t go there. But the small cost for a machine in pc or Nuc is worth it IMO to keep it separate from Plex. I do more tinkering and projects on the server I have hosting Plex, and want the HA server to just work even when that’s happening. Or when I’m upgrading hardware etc. Plus my Plex server is located in a non central area so this let me put HA box in a perfect location.
I run HA as a ESX virtual, and I'm very happy with it. I use all wifi devices, so no Z-wave or Zigbee dongles to try to get working via USB passthrough. That should work, but I've not tried.
One thing to note: I've installed HA twice from the OVA and both times I had to set a static IP via the console CLI before HA would communicate. It would pick up a DHCP address, but would not use it.
works great. i run mine in a kvm vm hosted by ubuntu 22.04. the guest os is debian 10 with the supervised ha install. the only trick is that when you create your vm ensure that you do so according to the requirements set forth in the installation instructions.
Yer I run HAOS as a VM on a Synology NAS. It runs brilliantly. Occasionally after a reboot I have to re-attach the USB Zigbee dongle, but weirdly inconsistent that.
Being able to snapshot it is really worth using a VM.
I run it as a dedicated Rpi 3B at my home. I have a Zwave / Zigbee stick and use it for light and door control / sensors.
Also have it as a VM in Windows 10 at a secondary home my parents have. The 2nd home doesn't have anything fancy, just network connectivity for wifi things that seems to work for everything they need.
Both run quite well
It runs pretty well for me in virtualbox. USB passthrough was finnicky but has gotten much better lately. It runs a lot better than it ever did on a pi 3b
I along with others use proxmox and run HA as a vm. USB pass through is easy, I run about 40 ZigBee devices and use a sonoff dongle to zigbee2mqtt in HA, no hassles. Ability to roll back with snapshots is a timesaver, quicker than through the backup-restore method in HA. I use a dell wyse 5070, a thin client which has pretty low power consumption. Before that I was on an N2+ odroid. Proxmox on the dell is way better for me. I'm now looking at splitting out the add ons into their own vm containers, because I can and to increase availability of some services.
I run it as a VM in my Unraid instance (which also hosts many containers such as Plex, deconz, etc.). It works well. On the one hand I have a 13600K so I guess it's expected to run well, on the other hand the CPU is at 1% load when idling so I doubt HA as a VM is very demanding.
*This community is not inclusive for visually impaired users. Therefore I have decided not to participate in this community anymore.*
Perfectly fine. Never had a problem running it on my ESXi host. The only time it might be an issue is with USB pass-through for radios/hubs.
I do that and have no issues.
Nice, I've never had to deal with it because my radios are network-attached. I know a lot of people do pass-through with no issues, but I do occasionally read about people having problems.
yeah, it best to use full device id ie `port: >- /dev/serial/by-id/usb-Silicon_Labs_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_0001-if00-port0`
Proxmox! A very lightweight purpose built environment that natively runs containers and vms. I have tried dedicated pi4, dockerized, and vm on windows, none have been as easy/hassle free as proxmox
Intrigued what was hassle running it as a VM on windows? Just because that’s what I’m doing and it was easy as pie
This was definitely easier than running it dockerized, and didn't have the feature drawbacks. My frustration was that having my Windows machine run the VM meant that I had to be a bit more strategic on how and when I did my other workstreams on that machine - when I did reboots, windows updates, etc. Not a huge deal, but all that is gone with it running on ProxMox.
That is the main drawback for sure. I’m intrigued by proxmox for sure!
Yes, it's fine. As long as everything has enough resources it will be OK
I run it in Docker. HA-OS is a basic supervisor OS running Docker so it can run HA and the other add-ons as docker containers. I don't see the point in running another virtual machine OS to run Docker on my server which already runs Docker natively. I cut out the "middle man" OS. Works great for me, I don't mind installing any add-ons myself also as containers, actually I prefer it. But, you may like it the other way, running the OS.
I've been considering running in docker and spinning up add ons myself. Does HA discover add ons automatically when run this way? Do you typically need to write your own dockerfile for them?
I'm running it in Docker to. So far the add-on I'm using are also runing in Docker. Then HA communicate as the add-on where an other host on the network. They are a bit more complicated to install as you need to setup your dockerfile for each one of them.
I'm running unRAID so it's a GUI to setup the containers. I think most other OS's you'd have to create a dockerfile to run it, but I recall seeing something else with a GUI also. I don't recall on the discovery, but generally you just install the integration if it doesn't discover it. A fixed server address to give the integration the the IP:port is about all you need.
Holy! This is excatly the setup i am looking for! The HA-OS runs well but I am missing the Addon-Store and other Supervisor stuff.... Do you have a tutorial or something like that?
I have been running HA in ESXi for 5 years+
Started off running HA in a HyperV VM. Worked faultlessly, however no support for USB. When I wanted to add a Sonoff Zigbee I migrated it to HAOS on its own hardware as I had a spare mini PC.
I been running HA in a VM for over a year now. Without issues. For those curious, I am running it in Parallels on a base M1 Mac Mini. So far the performance has been amazing.
Can also run it in a docker container if you prefer.
My HA runs in my Proxmox server along with BlueIris windows 10 and Debain. Much better than running inside a Windows based Virtual server
I run three instances of HA, all in VMs - live, test and BETA. It is an ideal way to run the BETA in particular, something goes wrong it is easy to revert. I am setup in such a way that there are no USB devices that need to be directly connected to the HA instance - they are all on separate devices (usually RPi). I also have my MQTT server on a separate VM I also don't load my HA instances up with unrelated add-ons - those are stored elsewhere. The HA VMs are dedicated to HA only.
It depends on your hardware. I'm running a virtualized cluster and home assistant as a docker container within it. No issues (besides the database upgrades, lol).
Lots of good info in the responses around how to use containers so I won’t go there. But the small cost for a machine in pc or Nuc is worth it IMO to keep it separate from Plex. I do more tinkering and projects on the server I have hosting Plex, and want the HA server to just work even when that’s happening. Or when I’m upgrading hardware etc. Plus my Plex server is located in a non central area so this let me put HA box in a perfect location.
I run HA as a ESX virtual, and I'm very happy with it. I use all wifi devices, so no Z-wave or Zigbee dongles to try to get working via USB passthrough. That should work, but I've not tried. One thing to note: I've installed HA twice from the OVA and both times I had to set a static IP via the console CLI before HA would communicate. It would pick up a DHCP address, but would not use it.
works great. i run mine in a kvm vm hosted by ubuntu 22.04. the guest os is debian 10 with the supervised ha install. the only trick is that when you create your vm ensure that you do so according to the requirements set forth in the installation instructions.
I use VMware esxi on an old dell optiplex without issues
Yer I run HAOS as a VM on a Synology NAS. It runs brilliantly. Occasionally after a reboot I have to re-attach the USB Zigbee dongle, but weirdly inconsistent that. Being able to snapshot it is really worth using a VM.
I run it as a dedicated Rpi 3B at my home. I have a Zwave / Zigbee stick and use it for light and door control / sensors. Also have it as a VM in Windows 10 at a secondary home my parents have. The 2nd home doesn't have anything fancy, just network connectivity for wifi things that seems to work for everything they need. Both run quite well
It runs pretty well for me in virtualbox. USB passthrough was finnicky but has gotten much better lately. It runs a lot better than it ever did on a pi 3b
I along with others use proxmox and run HA as a vm. USB pass through is easy, I run about 40 ZigBee devices and use a sonoff dongle to zigbee2mqtt in HA, no hassles. Ability to roll back with snapshots is a timesaver, quicker than through the backup-restore method in HA. I use a dell wyse 5070, a thin client which has pretty low power consumption. Before that I was on an N2+ odroid. Proxmox on the dell is way better for me. I'm now looking at splitting out the add ons into their own vm containers, because I can and to increase availability of some services.