I apologize if this is covered in other places, but this board is littered with info around Docker usage for various reasons. I’m a seasoned and advanced docker user. I’m trying to fully identify some ways to possibly transplant some functionality from HASS-io containers vs the default HASS docker container.
High level view - I’m a current OpenHAB user, running OpenHABian on a Pine64. It works fine, but there are some issues with HomeKit functionality lately and I’ve seen some cool stuff in HA that OH doesn’t have. So I’m looking to test out HA in docker containers to start (yes I’ll handle the ZWave stick passthru stuff, did once upon a time with OH too). Once I can fully validate and complete my evaluation and ensure it meets all the needs, I’ll work on building this out on a SD card for my Pine64 to just pull and swap out.
To complete my testing though, I really would like to get the HASS-io containers spun up for some features. Specifically HomeBridge is one that I’m really hoping to use. Specifically because I have about 60 or so ZWave devices, that are a pain to have to go through configuring in HomeBridge standalone. I’d rather use the HASS-io docker add-on for HomeBridge.
So my question really comes down to this - is there a way that I can use the HASS-io addons with a straight HASS docker install? I understand from testing that a HASS-io install basically just stands up an extra container to handle the orchestration. I don’t care if there are difficult connections needed for the containers to talk and be linked, I just need to know how that happens and I can easily perform this piece. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Any other gotchas about the HASS-io based install? I saw documentation from another user about install HASS-io on Pine64, so I’m hoping it should be a fairly easy process based on his documentation of the effort. I just need to get this testing performed.
(sorry for the hass-io, apparently new members can’t include more than 2 links, and hass.io shows as a link!)
No, but you can install hassio on an Ubuntu/Debian machine, where essentially it just fires up the necessary hassio containers in your existing docker install
Thanks, I believed that was the answer, but wanted to validate. Guess I’m going to have to just build out a fresh Ubuntu system. Currently the docker host is an unRAID box. Don’t want to muck around with trying to run hass.io natively there. Will be extremely problematic since the file system is re-created on each boot. Appreciate the feedback though.
Actually, I guess let me ask one other clarifying question then as I see a lot of talk about it, but no actual detail.
What is the real difference between using the hass-io addons vs native? Is the native just a methodology of installing the “app” (in this case homebridge) separately and then using it with HASS? Or are there specific integration files/configs that are needed?
While I like the AMOUNT of documentation about HASS on the docs pages, there is a lot of linking to different sources and content based on the way you click to get there, and a lot of stuff that talks about things like home bridge, but basically outlines that the Add-On is required first. How would one “manually” get that add-on working, the pre-hass-io methodology if you will?
Awesome. Makes more sense. I’ll read up on the forums then for indications of how to get things up and running. I’ve seen some great examples from the cookbooks. Just trying to still wrap my head around the terminology. Thanks for taking the time to help me understand.
I have HassIO installed in a Debian VM. It is just 2 Docker containers. Installing addons just installs another Docker container. Pretty easy to manage, works great. Some things I run my own containers or services for, but it’s nice having the preconfigured Addons available.
Thanks @oakbrad - I did start to go that route, but as I started digging I’m understanding the whole setup better. I think I may understand the “limitations” people talk about - but being an avid Docker user, I think I understand enough to overcome any of those limitations. My main issue is that I’m in a bit of a limbo to get things tested before I move to the final planned platform which is a Pine64. Sadly we’ve become SO dependent on our home automation, that the WAF would drop to below 0 if I was to just pull the plug one day without having everything running again on the new platform relatively quickly. Aka within a few hours!
I think I’m ok right now with actually just running it in a docker container without hassio at this point. I don’t need the extensive extra add ons at this point. But I do look forward to the option of running the containers on the Pine64 environment just due to possible upgrades over time with different components (home bridge, node-red, etc).
Keep in mind (as @flamingm0e alluded to above) that if you’re using a normal Docker install of Home Assistant (i.e. not Hass.io), that there are plain Dockerized versions of just about every Hass.io Add-on, especially for things like Homebridge - I’ve been using the image oznu/homebridge for probably about a year now as the basis of my Homebridge container, it’s constantly updated, and setting up the homebridge-homeassistant plugin in Homebridge is really quite easy to do. Same goes for mosquitto (MQTT broker), Appdaemon (which you might want to use for HADashboard if you have any tablets you’ve currently been using as control panels with HABPanel), Node-Red, Nginx, and the list goes on. All are available as Hass.io Add-ons, yes, but all are also out there as plain Docker images you could install on your unRAID box for use as a testing ground.
Another thing to consider is that Home Assistant’s native HomeKit support is coming along very nicely and supports a lot of devices (though a few categories are notably missing, its early days still).
That’s what I’ve come to understand. It seems some of the “advanced” things I think folks have talked about are really not as much advanced, as they are lack of understanding the docker environment. I already run many things in containers and that was my realization was that most of the “add-ons” were just apps that need to be run somewhere. The simplification, is docker. Which I’d agree with as that’s how I run most apps (about half of what you said I run this way already!). I’ve got about 32 containers currently running on my unRAID.
I was seeing that as well about HomeKit, and honestly I’d love to go that way. Having to use another app to do it just adds layers of complexity. I may try it out that way to start.
