[Mac] Mount HA filesystem with SSHFS (instead of SMB)

[DvdNwk]

SSHFS – remote file system over SSH

This tutorial is for MacOS. You can probably do the same on Linux, but I don’t know about Windows – I don’t use them on desktop, so can’t help.

This tutorial is a bit advanced. If you actually need SSHFS, you probably don’t need this tutorial → but since I’ve already figured it out, I decided to share it for others (and as a future reference for myself as well).

Why you may want this?

• It mounts a remote filesystem as if it was a normal “disk” (drive, volume) on your Mac.
• You can use the HomeAssistant’s (remote) files in your regular Finder window.
• Easy to copy/move/rename files → open config files in your favorite Mac editor.
• It’s secure (encryption).
• You can’t use / don’t want to use Samba (for “reasons”).

Why not Samba (SMB)?

• Requires additional addon (apart from the “must have” anyway: Terminal & SSH addon, hehe)
• I’ve experienced issues with Samba mounted volume within Pycharm IDE:
  

What’s required:

• SSH configured on HomeAssistant (Terminal & SSH addon)
• MacFuse and SSHFS on Mac
• Terminal/shell familiarity

The steps:

1. Install Terminal & SSH addon for your HA:
   • It is “built–in”: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hassio/addon/core_ssh
   • Make sure you can connect to your HA with Mac’s Terminal:
     ssh [email protected]
   • Pro tip: use keys instead of passwords
   • Pro tip: Keep the passhprase in Keychain
2. Install MacFuse AND SSHFS (both!): https://osxfuse.github.io/
   • Unfortunately, it cannot be installed with homebrew anymore.
   • MacFuse uses a Kernel extension, so u will need to boot into Recovery and set the “Reduced Security” – I think the description is a bit misleading → I wouldn’t worry about it, the extension still needs to be (is being) signed by Apple.
3. Mount your HA remote as a MacOS volume via SSHFS.
   • It is recommended not to mount at /Volumes/ → better to do it in your home dir. Therefore I mount it at ~/Volumes/homeassistant_ssh/ (notice the tilde!).
   • Not to repeat yourself, make a few shell scripts:

     ➜ cat sshfs_mount.sh 
     
     mkdir -p ~/Volumes/homeassistant_sshfs
     
     sshfs [email protected]:/ ~/Volumes/homeassistant_sshfs \
       -o reconnect \
       -o volname=homeassistant_sshfs
     

     ➜ cat sshfs_unmount.sh 
     
     diskutil unmount force ~/Volumes/homeassistant_sshfs
     

     ➜ cat sshfs_remount.sh 
     
     ./sshfs_unmount.sh
     ./sshfs_mount.sh
     

   • I actually just always call ./sshfs_remount.sh.
4. Voila!

Footnotes:

• I know… a bit complicated with all the SSH configurations and scripts… If you only want to mount for Finder → it will be easier with Samba. I personally switched to SSHFS because Pycharm was giving me issues.
• It sometimes disconnects when Mac is put to sleep → just remount the volume.
• Tested on: M1 Mac, Sonoma 14.3.1, MacFuse 4.6.1, SSHFS 2.5.0, HomeAssistant Core 2024.2.5, Terminal & SSH addon 9.10.0.