Best Practices for Managing Home Assistant for Clients Remotely

Configuration
1

Hello,
I am an electrician, and many of my customers have been asking me to install domotics systems. Recently, I started learning about Home Assistant, and I must say, it’s an incredibly powerful platform! However, one aspect I’ve been struggling with is figuring out how to manage and maintain Home Assistant installations remotely.

I would like to set up a way to connect to my customers’ Home Assistant systems from my home so that I can address their requests without needing to visit them in person.

If anyone could kindly offer guidance or advice on this topic, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance!

2

Hi

Well you clearly need to practice a lot more with HA as by default with Nabu Casa (once activated) you have a full remote access at HA system :wink:

Vincèn

3

vpn, point to point, would normally be the correct way of granting access for these kind of things.
but to be honest i would not trust my electrician with my home automation.

4

I’m going to give you a word of advice from a 25 year IT vet.

Run… Do NOT WALK away from this request unless you are a full time IT person and understand the kinds of problems users will bring and are ok with long nights at the console figuring stuff out.

Home automation is not like regular IT. At least in IT land we get to specify what goes on our network. I HA land you will be at the whim of the user and see what happens if you try to tell them no they can’t do something. Just this complexity alone is enough to make me not do this.

Figuring out how to manage thier platform is the least of your concerns and one of many things you need to know STONE Cold before offering service for pay.

I know it’s hard to walk away from the prospect of money but in this case just sit and think of the many many ways this goes wrong. - it’s not like rolling a truck to install another outlet. Every question will become a research process that your user will not be ready or willing to pay for. Then you end up with a lot of sleepless nights after you’ve been slinging wire all day.

I would not let a standard sparky do my lo-volt stuff. And I would not let my low volt guy do my home automation… Unless that is his ONLY business. In which case someone somewhere is complaining about his prices because he knows what it’s gonna cost and end users dont understand why he charges what he does.

Check out Control4… That’s Exactly why they’re so expensive.

So if you’re willing to try to dictate to end users what they can and cannot install, learn those things cold and be available 24/7/365 go for it. Otherwise you probably don’t want to do this.

5

You are not sharing a project here. This should be moved. ETA: I changed this to Configuration.

And @NathanCu has given you the best advice on this you will ever receive.

If you currently have a career, you should make your money where you are trained. Not where you are training. You don’t want to fall into the trap of spending more time working on home automations (training) than being an electrician!

6

This might sound harsh, because it’s not what you want to hear, but what the last 2 people above said applies 100%.

In the same way anyone who knows how to wire in a plug would not be called an electrician, identical rules apply to most aspects in life.

You yourself admitted you’re still starting out on HA. Some of us have been involved in this for years, yet still would not even remotely (pun intended) attempt to do what you are thinking about.
I suggest you play to your strengths and continue in your area of expertise. If your area of expertise eventually includes remotely managing HA installations then sure, go for it.
Just not right now - you’re gonna need lots of hands on experience as well as digging through the forums for answers, way beyond the 17 days you’ve been here.

7

I’m a residential electrical integrator. I only do homes, no commercial or industrial. I’ve been doing electrical, lighting systems, networks, and audio/video in homes for 20 years. Prior to that, I was been in IT for 20 years, as a private consultant for the last 10. I have a small customer base, with long-time relationships.

I have found open source solutions to be more reliable and better supported than propitiatory solutions. Ubiquiti was hacked, by an insider. I use the Ubiquiti controller add-on in Home Assistant and so none of my customers were exposed. It is also important that my solutions still work when the Internet connection is down.

I use Home Assistant in most of my solutions, because it can be
simple, stable, and secure.

I only use the basic, built-in integrations and add-ons. No crazy, beta-state stuff. I also only use simple, and few, automatons (schedules, timers, and lighting scenes). I put it on an ODROID, or Pi.

Most of my customers don’t know what Home Assistant is. They are not interested in making and changes, adding, etc.
I have installations where the customer never directly accesses the server. Keypads, dimmers, and motion sensors (INSTEON or Zooz with z-wave associations) are all they see. No Zigbee, Matter, wi-fi, etc.

I build simple screens, sometimes with instructions. I have complete control of what the customer sees. No logos, no “new product being pushed by the manufacturer”, just the netcam view of the porch, and a button to unlock the door. Done. The screen won’t change, buttons won’t move, no ads, etc. Simple, stable, and secure

I do have a couple of home assistant hobbyist customers. For them, I have clearly defined boundaries in my contracts. I will install X, Y, and Z, it will do A, B, and C. If they can mess with it, there is no warranty. If they install the wine cellar add on, great. But, I’m not supporting it.

Back to the original question: I steer people to Nabu Casa if the system I’ve built uses the app or they use web access. I tell them about the foundation and how great it is. If they are never going to access the server directly, I’ll use DDNS and forward a port for remote diagnostics.

Cheers!