Configuration confusion after install with VMDK method

I am new to Home Assistant and started with what I knew. I installed Debian 10 and went with that installation method and was loving the system, however then I saw that I could use a pre-built VM image. The main reason was that I was looking for some configuration details and found that I needed to access the Supervisor panel, which my install did not have.

I run ESXi v6.5 at home so thought it would be perfect. I got it working however it doesn’t seem to work or is seemingly as easy to configure as my original installation.

Reading through the documentation for configuring https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/ with OS Home Assistant, however there is no /config directory.

So I am really confused by the different installations and then having different configurations and names. How do I work out which installation am I using, how do I compare and then I should be able to work out how to do configuration when needed.

Cheers,

Girkers

I used this guide:

Make sure the disk is set to SATA and the BIOS to EUFI.

Thanks for the installation Guide however I have got it installed and running, however is is after this that is the issue.

Configuration does not seem to follow the documentation that I can find. I can’t even find the config directory.

Did you install any add-ons?
Like VSCode?

No, never heard of it.

But I shouldn’t need to install something to do the basic configuration, should I?

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of you.
Do you get a web interface at the ip address of the virtual machine you said was successfully created?
You should need to put :8123 at the end of the IP address.

http://<yourIP>:8123

No @keithcroshaw you need to know where I am at so I can work this out.

Anyway I can access this and can access the command line from a virtual console, haven’t been able to SSH to work at the moment. But yes it is getting an IP address from my DHCP server and the web interface is accessible.

There’s an add-on called Terminal & SSH.
Maybe that solves your needs?
I’m not sure why you really need those functions other than emergency restoration.
There are much better configuration editors than working in a command line.

Thanks @keithcroshaw I have given up on this install and gone back to my original install I have on Debian, using the venv install I think it is called.

It has gotten all too confusing, at least I know Debian and everything where I expect it to be.

@keithcroshaw You have talked me into it.

I have gone the other way now and working on this install as it was so much easier to install MQTT and get working. Using the Terminal & SSH I have been able to find the /config directory.

The reason I wanted to access it as I needed to get to my configuration.yaml.

If I needed to get my configuration.yaml file I would take advantage of the Samba Share Add-On.

Are you using Home Assistant Core instead of full Home Assistant?
It’s cool if you are it just seems like unnecessary torture.
The Add-Ons are so useful.

My original installation was simply Core on Debian, but I have now switched to full HA whatever that is called. I followed the installation here https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/installation/ and used the VMDK.

This installation looks like it is a docker version as the VM has two (2) IP addresses, one on my network and a 172.x.x.x This has caused me a little confusion as this means there is obviously a NAT which I am not a fan of, I would prefer it to be directly on my network as I have a few VLANS and it can’t see everything. Also I came to this conclusion as when you use the console you get one interface, whereas when using the SSH Terminal addon you get direct access to the underlying OS. Very confusing to start with I must say.

As to accessing the configuration file I like the idea of the Samba share, more of an NFS guy personally with a mixed network (Windows/Linux) but I get the reasoning.

I think it’s simple if you stick to the web interface. VSCode is very robust when it comes to editing your configuration file. Most things don’t even require the modification of the configuration file now as they’re moving towards a 1.0 release.