Best way to integrate ZigBee devices with a remote HA server

Hi,

I’m hosting HA inside Kubernetes on a cloud based infrastructure. IP connectivity isn’t an issue as everything is securely accessible through a Wireguard tunnel and blocked from the outside world. They don’t even have a public interface.

All the HA integrations I have some far, are connected through WiFi (existing integration, REST API or MQTT):

  • Shelly devices
  • Native WiFi / Ethernet support
  • ESP32 for self-made projects or existing devices with a serial interface

Now I’m looking into the direction of extend the devices such as motion sensors, window/door sensors, … But most of them offer either ZigBee or Z-Wave connectivity.

My question is, what is the best way to get these devices integrated into HA under consideration, that my server is not on-site. At best, I could use MQTT.
I’ve seen that most ZigBee USB devices don’t have a WiFi connection, which requires additional hardware such as a Raspberry Pi to do the MQTT stuff. Or ZigBee / WiFi bridges, which are not really compatible with ZigBee2MQTT and have other disadvantages. Haven’t found any recommendation to use that.

How have you guys solved this issue?

Cheers Danny

I use deconz on a rpi 3 with a raspbee 2 zigbee thing. Then I point the deconz integration to the rpi. (Deconz is just the software for using the zigbee hardware)