Container not started but UI still working?

Installation
1

Hello

I am running HA as a container under Ubuntu (configuration details below), with port 80 mapped to 8123 so I can use the UI without typing the port number in the URL.

System is set to start the HA container with a service using docker-compose (compose file below).

Everything seems to work fine but I am facing a weird situation I cannot explain: sometimes, the HA service fails to start, but the UI is still working (!).

  • when restarting the service (systemctl restart), the HA container fails to start because port 80 is in use (the container remains in Created state)
  • the process that owns the port is python3 -m homeassistant --config /config (apparently running on the host)
  • the parent process of the python3 process is s6-supervise home-assistant
  • a new python3 process appears each time I kill it
  • command docker ps -a is not showing any other container

I had a hard time installing HACS because the procedure I followed required unzipping the package from within the container (using docker exec), which therefore must be running. At one point I was able to start the container (not sure how, maybe when I tried without the port mapping), but I find that my setup is not very stable.

Can someone explain what is going on? Am I doing something wrong? I suspect this might have something to do with ‘snap’, but it’s just a wild guess.

Cheers,

JC

  • Minisforum N40 (Celeron N4020) + Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle Plus ZBDongle-P (TI CC2652P)
  • Ubuntu server 22.04.3 LTS x86_64
  • Docker version 24.0.5, API version 1.41 (downgraded from 1.43)
  • Docker Compose 1.29.2-1
  • Ethernet cable to my router, fixed IP
  • Disabled built-in wifi and bluetooth
  • HA container image version 2023.10.5,
  • ZHA integration
  • HACS integration 1.33.0

Compose file

version: '3.7'
services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: homeassistant
    image: "ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:2023.10"
    ports:
      - 80:8123
    volumes:
      - /home/home/config:/config
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
    restart: unless-stopped
    privileged: true

Service file (/etc/systemd/system/homeassistant.service)

[Unit]
Description=HomeAssistant
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
WorkingDirectory=/home/home
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker-compose -f /home/home/homeassistant.yaml up -d
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker-compose -f /home/home/homeassistant.yaml down
TimeoutStartSec=0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
2

You should look at the log file.
The one name .log.1 should be the one from the previous run.

3

The HA log shows it’s starting and running successfully, which is the case.

4

Following more experiments, things are working as expected when I remove the port mapping (80:8123).

I really do not understand the system’s behavior when the port is mapped. Isn’t this the right way of doing this?

5

The port mapping should have no influence on HA.
Seen from HAs perspective it is just another connection on port 8123.
It might be an issue in your router then.

6 
restart: unless-stopped

Keep in mind that this will restart the HA container together with the docker service after a reboot. It means "restart the container unless an explicit docker stop is done.

So your systemd unit will actually start a second instance of the container, and likely have conflict on port 80.

7

That is actually not related to a reboot.

It means that if the system is running and HA is crashing (or getting killed) then it will be restarted again.
Only if the service is stopped properly with a stop command will it staying stopped.

8

Indeed, but a side effect is that the container will be restarted after a reboot because it was not

So, if you also have a systemd unit starting the container on boot, there will be a race for the port 80, and probably a restart loop for one of the containers.

(My) bottom-line: Have systemd or docker handle the restarts, but not both. If you use systemd, set restart: no in docker-compose.

9

The restart parameter online affect a crash or kill after the service have been attempted started by the systems first.
If the systemd is succeeding then the restart parameter will not take effect.