Big decision - next Home Assistant install type

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

I’ve been running Home Assistant in an unsupervised (Ubuntu and container) model since 2018. The laptop I installed it on might be going soon. I’m wondering what everyone’s thoughts are these days on the best way to go with my next install.

Back in 2018, I started on a Raspberry Pi. I moved away because for whatever reason, it was underpowered for what I was doing.

I don’t think my setup is difficult at all. I have a ton of Zigbee devices - mostly lightbulbs. Hue, which I moved from the hub and moved to the Conbee stick. I also have some Sengled bulbs, which I also pair directly with the Conbee stick.

Most of my automation is light bulbs, switches, and sensors. I use NodeRed for all – a lot – of my automation and couldn’t imagine automation without it. It just works so well.

Just thought to mention, I have an Unraid server which runs some of my usenet stuff and AdGuard – kind of overkill. There is a container in Unraid for Home Assistant, but I’m wondering is that similar to the unsupported, unsupervised install? Also, what would be the challenges with USB devices like the Conbee? I’ve seen some folks create VMs in Unraid – seems counter to the value of containers.

Back in 2018, there wasn’t a Pi4 and I had considered going the NUC route, but I had a spare laptop that I could dedicate and decided it was easier.

So what is everyone’s thoughts? Would love to hear from those who have done several types of installs and settled on one that works the best.

Thanks!

2

I have been running a Pi 4 since 2019 (Supervised than switched to HAOS). No issues at all and I’m very happy. But I would consider going with a NUC today if I had to upgrade/change because they seem to be a better value (price, performance, availability, etc.).

1 Like
3

I run HAOS Bare Metal on an Intel NUC i3. It’s been running for years without a reboot necessary.

Any micro-PC will blow the dust from any Pi, and buying used on eBay for about half the cost of a new Pi5, case and power supply.

Advantages of HAOS on bare metal.

  1. Flash the HAOS image to the boot drive.
  2. Reboot.
    That’s it. Done.
    No learning curve for Proxmox, Docker, VM’s. No USB or Network issue. No managing disk or memory allocations.

The downside of bare metal? Your Home Assistant host PC is just that. Dedicated to one task. It just works."

1 Like
4

There are three main options, and all/none are “best”, depending on you:

  1. Docker - if you rock Docker anyway, why would you do anything else?
  2. HAOS on bare metal - keep it simple
  3. HAOS in a VM (eg Proxmox) - make it easy to revert

Supervised should be avoided.

Everything will work with any of those three methods. USB devices are easy to pass through to containers.

Well, the unsupervised install is supported just fine. The Unraid container store may lag on updates - some of those “stores” don’t get updated quickly.

I’d suggest that if you’re happy with what you’ve got there’s no real need to change it. If you’re not happy then look at HAOS in a VM.

1 Like
5

I’ve been running HAOS in a Proxmox VM on a Beelink Mini S12 for a year now and am very happy with the setup. I know others run HAOS on this hardware bare metal if you don’t want the Proxmox layer.

2 Likes
7

Would you say this should apply to if I was running Home Assistant via Unraid?

I’m thinking about getting a box with more power – well two for back up – and spinning up Home Assistant as a VM.

Good point - I’m happy with it, but I want to move it away from living on Ubuntu and potentially run it in Unraid as a VM.

I’m a big fan of Unraid

I don’t mind the Proxmox layer. It sounds easier than the Supervised install I’m running now. I may just run it in Unraid, which I really like and where I run a bunch of other docker containers. Thinking of getting a bigger box, or two for redundancy and running HASOS as a VM in Unraid