I volunteer for a non-profit that helps disabled adults remain independent in their own homes and the question I have has to do with multi-site deployment for Home Assistant. We have 130+ client sites that we are looking to deploy home automation to so we can enhance their independence. Can we configure sites in such a way that they can be locally managed from one location, restrict access to the sites to only those that need it. Basically asking about an enterprise-grade deployment I suppose. Any ideas are welcome and suggestions are appreciated.
Dumb updated yaml files on a secure linux share. You’ll need a daily cron job or similar for each box to check linux share for updated files on a daily basis or something to that extent. Once the files are copied over it will auto reboot.
Updates to Hass will be tricky but i’m sure it’s not something you will be updating as regular as home. Once a year perhaps?
If you are willing a have a computer running at each home, you would set each home up to be accessible from the internet, and so could be controlled from any web browser, anywhere.
Each home would have its own password. The password would allow access to all ascpects of HA, so there is no finer resolution, such as only allowing one person only to turn on the lights, but not the heating.
Its possible, but HA is still beta level software. Personally, I would not be comfortable at the moment using HA in a mission critical environment. Certainly not if people’s lives were depending on it running all the time.
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I would not say that HASS is ready for an enterprise-grade deployment. I would also say that NO open source solution is ready.
If you are willing a have a computer running at each home, you would set each home up to be accessible from the internet, and so could be controlled from any web browser, anywhere.
I’ve read documentation that a Raspberry Pi can run Home Assistant. I’d probably leverage AWS or Azure for my centralized management point. We have a volunteer that works for Microsoft and can get the to donate Azure usage.
Each home would have its own password. The password would allow access to all ascpects of HA, so there is no finer resolution, such as only allowing one person only to turn on the lights, but not the heating.
Ok, that makes sense.
Its possible, but HA is still beta level software. Personally, I would not be comfortable at the moment using HA in a mission critical environment. Certainly not if people’s lives were depending on it running all the time.
Understood. The components we would be putting in would certainly not influence a life or death situation. The items we would put in would be there to empower those we serve by allowing them more control over their environment. Were talking about Alexa-activated lights, some sort of door opener (facial recognition or some other method), light controls, etc. Maybe have Alexa tell them the weather and suggest what type of clothing to wear. These folks have an on-site aid 24/7 that splits their time among four apartments.
We might look into a paid solution if I feel that Home Assistant won’t be able to meet our requirements.
Bummer. You have any experience with any paid solutions? Of course open-source is the preferable route, but the foundation could leverage something else if need be.
Thank you! That makes sense and shouldn’t be a big lift.
Considering Amazon’s new Echo Plus announcement, it might be a good choice. There are lots of Zigbee lights, switches, thermostats etc. I don’t know how managing a large scale deployment would work, but it would be worth talking to Amazon.
Deployment would be possible with configuration management. We have some work done in this area.
As you would need an SSH connection for the deployment you could re-use this setup for the management. Like creating an SSH tunnel for access to the running Home Assistant instance when your want to access one location. Would require some sort of Dashboard for the overview. An advantage would be that the local instance wouldn’t need a password as the only access from the outside would be possible through an SSH tunnel with the right key.