Hello,
I am new to HA. Currently in a process to integrate HA with Alexa using Haaska. I have VPN setup in my network that I use to connect to my home network from outside. Also my HA instance is using https (with a valid ssl cert) with a subdomain (https://homeassistant.mydomain.com) that get’s resolved locally using my DNS server.
Now my question is, do I still need to do a port forward for Haaska even though I do have VPN? If yes than for what reason?
Thanks
A VPN connection require the setup of a VPN client and since you can not get such one setup on the HAASKA servers, then you are related to use port forwarding instead.
It’s the lambda function running on AWS that you are talking about?
Yea that make sense…
Btw the devices I would like to expose to Alexa, are basically Alexa compatible by default… Although I am using all the Automations in HA but those devices (like Ring Cameras) have direct integration with Alexa… You think it’s better to keep the direct integration (along with those device integration with HA) rather than going through Haaska or any other route???
I have no idea.
I avoid cloud services as much as possible, so Google and Alexa is unknown areas to me.
Yea that’s my eventual goal… 
to avoid all the cloud services and go with home hosted solution… I actually built Alexa ecosystem in my house couple of years ago and I wasn’t aware of HA… just started using HA couple of weeks ago… I guess eventually I will have to replace all my smart devices (schlage, ring, ecobee etc) that are currently using cloud services… it’s going to take some time but will get there