Is it possible to seamlessly transition from VB HAOS to RPi/HA Yellow/Green?

Installation
1

I have a HAOS running in Virtual Box under Windows. It has a Z-Wave stick with many devices, MQTT integration with Ring, LocalTuya, and many other integrations and a few add-ons. There is also Nabu Casa cloud service and plenty of automations and blueprints.

I would like to know if it’s possible seamlessly transition to a RPi, HA Yellow, or HA Green platform? Will the Z-Wave devices move with the stick? What about the other integrations, accounts, credentials, automations, etc.? Is it as simple as restoring a backup or will it take major effort?

Thanks.

2

Yes.

You can create a full backup and restore it on the new system. Everything will be copied across.

Occasionally the recorder database does not get backed up correctly but that is just a matter of copying across another file.

If you have that issue, follow these instructions: Difficulty in Migrating to HAOS from Container Install - integrations not loading - #2 by tom_l

1 Like
3

Thank you, @tom_l! I will take a look.

4

Thanks again, @tom_l. This is good to hear. In thinking of other concerns, I presume user accounts, IP addresses, and community add-ons with their configs will all move with the backup?

With the Z-Wave stick as a USB device, I would think that I will need to remap its location after the transfer?

5

Yes.

And yes you may need to locate your usb device. Best method is “serial by id”.

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6

Thank you, @tom_l. I am reminded of another thread where you wrote "do not use Windows [as the host]. I am now looking to move the HA to a new hardware platform. Under consideration were RPi 4, Yellow, and a micro PC. It would appear that a PC can provide more horsepower and headroom, and I still like the idea of virtualization. With it, I can more easily backup the entire HA system, move it, restore it, etc. It seems to be easier to get back up and running if the host hardware fails. If my understanding is flawed, please comment.

Next, I know Ubuntu can run a VB host. Would Ubuntu be a good host? If not, is there another distro that is recommended?

Lastly, what is the reliability experience with running HA as a VB guest in a Linux host?

Many thanks.

7

Ubuntu is fine for a VB host. But I’d suggest, you do a search here in the forum for “Proxmox”. That should give you a good overview, how reliable this solution is. Btw. I’d say Proxmox as host and HA-OS in the VM is a good sytem, it’s kind of the go-to solution here in the forum for virtualization on mini PCs.

And there are a bunch of really useful scripts for install and maintenance around for Proxmox. :slight_smile:

Here is the the topic for all your installation needs with Proxmox:

I highly recommend that solution, running it myself for over a year without any problems! Beside that I chose a dump location for the PC and now have to crawl under a cabinet to clean it… :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :rofl: :rofl:

1 Like
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Lol thanks @paddy0174 for the information and link to the Proxmox installation info. I was hoping to stick with VB because I use it elsewhere and have a fairly extensive VM library with backup workflows, etc. A trouble-free HA is pretty important. Based on your travels on this forum, is VB less reliable as a HA host compared to Proxmox?