Intel NUC, Ubuntu and Docker - Gotta Love It!

Hardware
21

Sorry, that sentence was formatted poorly. I meant that I was going to create a number of VM’s and then run a swarm across them. You can’t run VM’s in Docker, it’s almost an oxymoron…

22

I don’t run any VMs on my NUCs. My NUCs are docker hosts only. I have a Proxmox server that runs VMs, and a FreeNAS box for storage.

23

@flamingm0e
Ah ha, I caught someone at the right moment to ask…

Is there a simple answer to the question, when is it right to choose Docker and when is it right to choose Proxmox?

I am close to getting NUC (yeah I’ve been saying that for weeks) but I have no idea how to decide which way to go.

I will definitely want to run,

  • HA (almost certainly hassio),
  • Unifi controller
    and
  • Maybe PiHole
  • Maybe MotionEye
  • Maybe more…
24

You use Proxmox when you want to run VMs. Home Assistant should have nothing to do with it. :wink:

25

So.… does that mean Proxmox is more versatile because you need a Docker image to exist for the application you want to run in Docker, whereas you can always create a VM for any application or indeed run several applications in one VM.

26

I run a HP micro server with Proxmox. Proxmox is basically a virtualisation framework that runs on Debian Linux.

On that I run 8 or 9 LXC (linux containers) and two VMs (ubuntu). On the Ubuntu guests I run docker - I have about 11 docker containers.

Rule of thumb (in my mind) Proxmox LXC is OS containerisation and Docker is Application containerisation.

I run my ProD HA in a LXC container and a Dev one in docker though.

Hope that makes sense.

mb

EDIT: to answer your question - yes I think so :slight_smile:

27

I’m far from an expert in this subject but here’s my take. I currently run a Windows-based home automation software on its own (naturally) Windows-based computer. I run Home Assistant on a separate Linux-based computer. If I wanted to combine the two into one machine, I could run Proxmox with two VMs:

  • One VM runs Windows and the Windows-based home automation software.
  • The other VM runs Linux and Home Assistant.

The choice of whether Home Assistant runs as a virtualenv or under Docker, in the Linux-based VM, is a secondary issue.

28

Yep I think you are spot on there - I have one instance in VirtualEnv (in a LXC) and one in Docker. Pros and cons for both, but not yet in my mind enough to do one or the other. My Dev is in Docker as so quick to update/downgrade and prod in virtualEnv.

I suppose you could say I used to be indecisive but now I’m not sure …:slight_smile:

29

Yeah, I know what you mean… Like I said…

But thanks to you all for the pointers… I suspect I’ll go with Proxmox. It seems more conceptually intuitive.
Now all I’ve got to do is choose my NUC.
:scream:

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30

I love Proxmox - great gui too:

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31

I will add that there doesn’t seem to be any major drawbacks with having Proxmox either way. Even if you end up deciding to just run Docker on Ubuntu and do everything that way, you can create a single VM for it. If you never need Proxmox again, oh well. It will mostly just sit there and you can pretty much ignore it.

The advantage is that if you ever do find yourself needing another VM or wanting to try something different, you can already do so without destroying your existing setup first.

1 Like
32

Just read this thread as Im confused on how to install my NUC8i5 to get the most out of it.

Regarding the presence detection earlier in the thread, I use Life360 with my wife’s and my iPhone’s, works a treat. I did find my wife’s iPhone would keep losing wifi signal at quite times so I set the ‘Background App Refresh’ to On (the same as mine) and that seams to have done the trick.

Like your thinking @tboyce1, at the moment I’ve got Proxmox and hassio installed.

33

@MarVin just came across your writeup. Thanks for putting this together and initiating this thread. NUCs have caught my attention. I’m the poor sod experiencing some instability described here: HASS.IO -> transfer from SD card to SSD or USB

One question: any site that may help me size the NUC that suits my needs? I’m currently considering keeping an old 2-bay QNAP NAS for file storage and replacing the two RPIs that I run with a NUC. I have 3 network cameras and at some point I gave Motioneye a try, but rolled it back due to the huge load that it posed on my HA RPI.

Thank you!!

34

I personally don’t know of any sizing tools but I do know that for a simple setup my NUC running a Celeron CPU is ample as shown below.

image

Since my purchase prices have come down as well so depending on your budget you can get some power. Look at Amazon’s prices for a complete i3 with great spec’s ready to go… plenty of room for camera recordings as well. On sale @ $329… can’t go wrong.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXNUC8i3CYSM1-Home-Mini-Windows/dp/B07HHB2YLG/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=intel+nuc&qid=1603547858&sr=8-3

35

Thanks! What services do you run on your NUC and how do they get delivered?

36

I’m actually still running the “now unsupported” install using Ubuntu with Portainer and about to tear it down and rebuild to conform.

I did find sizing recommendations in the doc’s just a minute ago.

Platform Notes
Raspberry Pi Zero/Pi 2 Only use these for testing
Raspberry Pi 3/3+/4 This is a good starting point, and depending on the amount of devices you integrate this can be enough - use an A2 class SD card if possible.
NUC i3 This is if you need a little more power over a Pi
NUC i5 This will allow you to run multiple services without any issues, perfect for a homelab
NUC i7/i9 Pure power, you should not have any performance issues
37

Interesting. Thanks!! Why is that not supported noW?

38

There was only 1 developer left supporting the installation type and he can’t keep up with that and everything else he’s working on. Kind of a long story how it got there but I think eventually everyone will need to get off the type install I have.

I’m going to the latest Ubuntu and will run VMWare. I was running PiHole and AdGuard outside of HA as separate workloads under docker but will now probably run them through HA I have not decided yet.

39

Home Assistant Supervised is officially supported on Debian.

If you choose to run Home Assistant Supervised on any other distro, like Ubuntu, it is community-supported (because many people chose Ubuntu).

If you are starting out with Home Assistant Supervised, use Debian. If you are already running it on Ubuntu, you can continue to use it until you encounter a problem that the community is unable to solve and switching to Debian becomes unavoidable. Or you can switch to Debian whenever it’s convenient in order to avoid any future headaches.

40

Save a few bucks, and get the Pentium or Celeron version of the NUC:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC7CJYH-Desktop-Computer-Celeron/dp/B07BTD3H5X/