After server restart, asks for onboarding again?

Installation
1

Hi, hoping someone can point me in the right direction please…

I’ve just started out, and finally managed to get HA working on QNAP NAS, docker container, unsupervised.
I have everything working, but if I reboot the NAS, it seems to lose everything?
If I try to access Home Assistant via 192.168.1.130:8123 it just takes me back through the onboarding process again and everything is lost.

Also, any automations I make don’t seem to show up in the automations.yaml file, nothing seems to be saving anywhere, could this be related?

Sorry if this is basic, but I feel like I am missing something.
I have re-setup my HA system several times, and every time I reboot my NAS it disappears! Very frustrating.
I don’t need to reboot my NAS all the time, but I am just checking the recovery scenario after power failure, and it is no good if I lose everything from HA.
I can restart the container no problem, just not the whole server.

Any suggestions please?

Thank you!!

2

It sounds like when you set up the container you didn’t create a volume for the /config folder

3

Maybe show us your docker run command, or your docker-compose file.

4

Thank both for the replies - they both prompted me to find the solution.
But perhaps you might be able to help me understand why…

Explanation:
The first time I installed HA I did it through container station on my QNAP, searched through Docker Hub. This allowed me to select a folder for the install, and all the files appeared properly.
But as I had major difficulty trying to get my Zstick to be recognised, I deleted and re-installed many, many times.

Along the way I learned of docker commands, and began installing HA with this -

docker run --init --name homeassistant --net=host --privileged -itd -v /share1/haconfig/config:/config -e TZ=Australia/Brisbane --device /dev/ttyACM0 ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable

However, that command doesn’t put anything in the folder I nominate! I tested many times, and I cannot figure out where the install is going to, and it all gets wiped on server restart. I fooled myself initially because I left files in that folder from one of my Docker Hub installs, but they of course were no longer from a live install so of course they weren’t updating or helping reboot.

So, now I have it working via Docker Hub, but have no idea what is happening with docker run.
Just total beginner confusion of course, but if someone can quickly explain it will more than likely improve my knowledge of docker commands.

Thanks for the help, I am finally ready to automate everything in sight…

5

The configuration files go in the /config folder inside the container.

Looking at the official docs:

docker run -d \
  --name homeassistant \
  --privileged \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  -e TZ=MY_TIME_ZONE \
  -v /PATH_TO_YOUR_CONFIG:/config \
  --network=host \
  ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable

you appear to have added a bunch of extra command line options, specifically --init and -it. That results in:

  • An init process being started inside the container
  • An interactive session being started
  • A tty being allocated

None of that is needed, and may well be part of your problem.

Try removing those so that your command is just:

docker run --name homeassistant --net=host --privileged \
  -d -v /share1/haconfig/config:/config \
  -e TZ=Australia/Brisbane \
  --device /dev/ttyACM0 ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
6

You probably knew this already, but there was this thread the other day:

What is your QNAP? The point is that you might want to consider the install type of HAOS in VM, if feasible / applicable.

7

Sorry for the delay in replying, I have been deep down the VM rabbit hole!
From my original research I got the impression that VM was going to be resource hungry, and early on I came across recommendations for docker, so I jumped in to that intially.

Having now tried both (thank you @k8gg !!), I would claim that the VM pathway is by far the best for someone who has no prior docker or linux command-line style experience. I would also venture to say that you would have to be pretty good with docker to find any advantage… the functionality of HAOS is everything I need and more. Although the challenge then shifted from the HA + zwave dongle to then trying to get Samba working, but I have now figured all that out.
HAOS with supervisor is just a dream (relatively speaking), access to the addons, not having to deal with external zwavejsmqtt… just bliss. Almost forgotten the few days of my life I just lost. Just a much better experience overall.

To answer previous reply @Tinkerer (thank you very much for your help!!), the docker run I used is in fact directly taken from the official docs for QNAP Zwave install… I have no idea what it all means, just trying to get to the end result…

Thank you everyone for your help, this has now turned the corner and is very enjoyable!

Cheers.

8

It is true that VM has its overheads and relatively more resource hungry. But emphasis relatively - in reality one probably won’t feel any difference, and even if you feel any, HAOS is still justifiable by offering a lot more out of the gate.

And would you like to share your experiences, while the memory is still fresh? I have not seen much discussions specifically about HA in VM + zwave dongle + QNAP box. Maybe a quick write-up, or some pointers / links? … anything that would help other users down the road.