Can home assistant be an app ON TOP OF my Pi OS 11?

new user here… please just give me the 30000 ft view

I have a Pi 4B that i have running Pi OS 11 . do I have to install HA to REPLACE the Pi OS or can i add HA to be an App that Runs on the Pi such that the Pi is still free to be a general purpose comptuter.

in other words…does the Pi 4 have to be dedicated to HA only

A docker install or a venv install can do that, a supervised not, and a HA OS install completely takes over your Pi.

Just so that you find your way as a new user:

  • “docker install” → “Home Assistant Container
  • “venv install” → “Home Assistant Core
  • “supervised” → “Home Assistant Supervised
  • “HAOS” → “Home Assistant Operating System

Those are the 4 supported installation method

thanks. im learining about docker and containers…

in yoru guys opinions… should it be fairly easy for me to set up a reliable instance of HA with docker that can server as a 24/7 home secruity platform for me on a pi 4 that is always on?

can i also add docker instances of media server and nas server on the same Pi4 or will it get bogged down?

Yes it should be doable to get a reliable instance of HA.

Whether it is suitable as a security platform is unclear, as we don’t know what you want to do exactly.

I don’t know exactly what “media server” and “nas server” software you are looking at, so not easy to answer.

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