If you run home assistant os you can run node red on the same machine. No vm.
Not sure what homebridge is or what it does sorry.
Got it, so I can just run the OS on any of the many nice mini-pcs? Looking at installation, it looks like there’s one specifically for the NUC, does that mean it’ll be harder to install the OS on others?
I was going to go the RPi 4 + SSD route to run HA and another service (Unifi controller). But from some good online advices, i decided to go for a used mini/tiny/micro PC for 50 euros extras compared with RPi4 8MB+SSD+accessories.
With HA running in a VM on proxmox and a Unifi Controller docker in another VM , the CPU is below 5% and power consumption is between 11W and 12W. So plenty of CPU left to run more services on the same box without any upgrade. And then, it can still be upgraded (empty RAM slot and empty NVMe) if need be. Maintenance is easy and backups are automated (proxmox backs up the whole VMs to a NAS on schedule).
These used mini PCs can be found cheaper than the used NUCs for equivalent config. I do not know about the power consumption comparison.
Interesting, what kind of processor do you have? Just trying to compare stuff? Which mini pc – just want to have a benchmark?
I’m sure there are other reasons. But I’d like to highlight that, if you are running HAOS VM, meaning your HA is supervised with add-on support, there is an add-on for Unifi !
So chances are you could live with only one (HAOS) VM.
Thanks!
I do not have a clear understanding of HA addons but my impression is that this addon is basically a container for the unifi controller so i prefer to have a more direct control of it by choosing a broadly used container and running it in a docker separate from HA’s.
That said i also somewhat went the other way around at first: I first did an HA ‘supervised’ installation in docker but, since the hardware is far from saturated, I instead decided to follow the first recommended installation by giving it a full VM.
All that said, your suggestion is great for someone who is less of a control freak than me.
Sure: a HP ProDesk 400 G3 Mini (circa 2017) with an i5 6500T & 8MB. They had much beefier models in that Mini series but the price goes up of course. As expected, Dell (‘Micro’) and Lenovo (‘Tiny’) have comparable models.
Now my HA just has sensors and switches. No video streaming. And the Unifi Controller is just for my home so not a heavy usage. Since i never purchase the RPi 4 i don’t have any direct comparison.
But at first, I did attempt to run on a RPI3B+ running Ubuntu server 20.04 with HA and Unifi in containers… and that was a failure: after a while it would just hang, probably thrashing for lack of memory because the Unifi controller container alone could run, and of course HA could also run alone. But not both at the same time. I did try to tweak the config of the Unifi Controller and its mongoDB to reduce memory usage but that was only delaying a bit the bad outcome.
Have to agree here. I’ve purchased old Lenovos and Dells from eBay and they are way cheaper than a NUC. I went ahead and consolidated Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Sabnzbd, and a Home Assistant VM under one roof of a 7 year old i3 16gb Dell Optiplex running Windows Server 2019 and it’s rock solid. Fast and never down. All of this costs less than a used NUC and is potentially more reliable than a Pi.