I started with Ubuntu around 8.04 release. And I changed hardware twice but still use same OS ( one recovery due to unsuccessful BTRFS install). It’s rock solid and very well documented on Internet. Mix of Ubuntu and Docker is perfect. New installs do not affect your main OS. In case of troubles you simple delete containers/images and start from scratch. Backups you can keep on server (NUC) or download to PC. Portrainer is really a good addition, it makes thing simpler in case of troubles.
If it were me I’d go with a VENV install on Debian, however everyone is different, if you want/need/already use HassIO addons then go with that.
I wish everyone a goodfmorning and a nice start of the week!
Thanks to everyone, the migration worked fine and I can also edit my config files from windows now, and even my z-wave stick works without altering the config.
However, some questions came in mind recently:
1.) This NUC5CPYH has a celeron CPU. Right now I have installed Hassio and Plex, and the CPU sensor within HA shows me about 19-25% CPU usage. Is that too high? My Raspberry
2.) How do you backup your Linux installations? Just relying on the Hassio Snapshot feature, or is there something available to backuop the whole disk. (Acronis? Rsync?)
the N3050 is a dual core CPU with a low clock, that sort of usage is fine.
You can either take a snapshot from within Hass.io, or, just keep a backup of all your yaml and lovelace files (my recommendation), and reinstall Hass.io easily at any time should you need.
Just keep a .txt document with all your configs for Plex etc and you can easily do a full install of the OS, Hass.io and any other docker containers.
Well, for the last 3 days everything workjed fine. Today my HA freezes (not the Ubuntu instance), i just couldn´t access the Web GUI anymore (Rotating circle, but no really connection error)
Anyway, I restarted my whole NUC twice, as I didn´t know how to just restart the Hassio service/container. Is there a command for that?
Thanks again,
Philipp
Did you also install Portainer on the NUC?
If so then you can go to the portainer GUI & restart from there.
If not, …then why not?
It makes things ridiculously easier to deal with situations just like this.
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docker restart home-assistant
and
docker restart hassio-supervisor
or
sudo systemctl restart hassio-supervisor.service
Thank you both.
I had installed Portainer now, but it´s good to know the command line
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I’m a bit late to the party on this one. I had the same dilemma when moving from RPi3, I ended up installing Proxmox and hassio on my NUC. Surprised Proxmox hasn’t been mentioned much. Do people not use Proxmox now or is there better alternative.
I’ve been using Proxmox since around 2009-2010. But for HA I use a NUC running Linux and docker. I don’t need a hypervisor on my NUC. I have a server for that.
I know this may be a bit off topic, but I havn´t found a satisfying solution yet (if there is any):
Currently, the NUC runs with Hassio, Plex and MySQL with instances for Home Assistant and Kodi.
Of course I do backup the Home Assistant config every day by snapshot, but for the rest of the system, I have no clue on how doing this right now.
I tried Timeshift for doing snapshots. Sounds good, but it doesn´t support docker (“Running Timeshift on such systems will have unpredictable results”).
Comparing it with the windows world: I would like to have something like Acronis, making an image from the entire disk, thus being able to restore the whole OS back to a new disk and continue.
Is there anything you can recommend? Clonezilla maybe?
Thanks again,
Phil
With docker and compose, the only thing you have to worry about is your config and data directories. I use restic to back those up to my NAS using a script and cron. I don’t need a snapshot of the entire system because my entire setup could be rebuilt in the time it takes to restore a disk image.
Duplicati, Restic, Borg, Duplicacy are all great options for file level backups. I don’t mess with system images because everything I do runs in Docker. On my desktop I use backintime and Restic
My NUC is running Proxmox and I installed docker on it, so I can run hassio side-by-side my vm’s, Runs flawless. For data backup, I have a NAS as well. I nfs mounted a NAS folder on the NUC and I’m using that for data storagefor hassio (and other docker containers).
The NAS is in a RAID 5 config, with a cloud backup.
I would go with a VENV based install myself. I’ve tried HassOS but found it too limiting.
I agree but the compromise between the 2 is docker. Makes venv look complicated
Docker is the only method I have not tried. If I ever get issues with my VENV set up I may give it a go. 
I used to run in a venv but I made the switch to docker and I don’t regret it a bit. Things are so much easier to maintain and running things in development mode is a lot safer. You just start up a new container and if you screw something up or don’t like it then just remove the container and it’s just like it never existed at all.
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I’m using a quite “old” NUC for HA at home. it does work flawlessly!
Once thing though, with Ubuntu 18.04, the network interface names changed (eth0 became enp3s0) and made the systemmonitor (https://www.home-assistant.io/components/systemmonitor/) component not working for anything that is network related (doesn’t show transfert speeds, etc.) it does work well for RAM and CPU stats though.
Maybe installing Ubuntu 16.04 (that is still supported up until 2021) would be the good way to go… as the interface name is the good old one: eth0.
My two cents. 
you can change the configuration for system monitor to use the new network interface name. Mine on my NUC is eno1 and the system monitor works fine with that as the “arg:”
Yeah I,ve done it by specifying the network interface name in the arg: but it still doesn’t work… 