I have an existing HA docker instance, plus Node-Red, Zigbee2MQTT and ESPHome all running in docker containers.
I’ve started running Proxmox for some other homelab services, so I thought it would be smart to move home assistant across into a VM running on Proxmox too.
I was wondering if anyone had some tips for making the migration as painless as possible. Almost all of my automations are in Node-Red.
I intend to repurpose the machine currently running my docker containers into another Proxmox server where I will ultimately host my home automation services.
I’ve started the process by creating a VM using tteck’s helper script, so far so good.
I am envisaging that I can take a backup of my docker HA and restore it on the new VM. I expect there will be issues, hopefully not too many. Of course I’ll need to migrate my Node-Red, Zigbee2MQTT and ESPHome configuration which could be challenging. I wonder whether it’s best to bring them in as add-ons or run them in Proxmox in a separate VM (running docker) or containers.
Anyway, I’ll be interesting to read your tips and suggestions.
I run the same container install you do currently, using home assistant container, zigbee2mqtt, and node red. I would never consider switching that to a VM install. VM’s are not as efficient as docker
HAOS is using docker in the background, with the supervisor managing the docker containers (aka addons) for you. So, you’d be migrating from a docker install, to a docker install running inside a VM.
The addons are modified versions of the original programs, shoe horned in to work with home assistant. Sometimes that creates problems. This one was not so good.
I would just keep running it the way you have been, it will probably create more issues then it would solve trying to move everything over, for little benefit. If you have concerns about backing up the docker volumes, there’s other solutions for that, such as duplicati.
If you insist on the proxmox route, i would run each program as it’s own container versus the addons at least. I haven’t used proxmox myself, but i also believe there’s a way to run docker in a debian lxc, so that should be the closest and easiest way to mimick what you are already using.
Thanks Tim, that’s interesting, I’ll take that on-board.
Initially, I was thinking of running a Debian LXC container or Debian VM in Proxmox and running everything in Docker containers. That way it should be straight forward to copy across my existing config files. However, I believe that getting my Zigbee USB stick to pass through could be an issue, more so with using a container.
So that’s why I considered the HaOS VM in Proxmox route. I also like the VM method for simplicity in backing up the entire VM. BTW, I currently use Duplicati to backup the current system.
There’s a tteck script to run zigbee2mqtt in an lxc container. I think if you at least ran zigbee2mqtt that way, it would minimize the pass through issues.
Theres a tteck for node red lxc as well. I would avoid the node red home assistant addon based on the post I linked above.
Then you could probably run everything else however works best for you for backup and ease of use.
There’s definitely a lot of options to run these programs, which is good.