Migrating to HAOS from OpenHAB

[mjeshurun]

Hello Friends,

For the past few years I’ve been running my smart home using OpenHAB installed on Unraid as a docker container.

Everything is working ok with my current system, but I’m thinking of switching to HA.

Can anyone please share what I should take into consideration for the migration process?

My smart home has Zwave, Zigbee, SmartThings Wifi devices, and RF devices, which I control using: Zwave usb controller, Zigbee usb controller, and a Broadlink RM4 Pro for controlling RF devices.

If I switch to HA and connect my current Zwave and Zigbee usb controllers, will HA be able to automatically find and add all the Zwave and Zigbee nodes I included and configured in OpenHAB, or will I first need to exclude these devices from OpenHAB and then include them on HA?

Is there an easy migration assistant I can use that connects HA to OpenHAB for an automatic import of my OpenHAB configurations?

I hope someone can help

[FloatingBoater (James Derrick)]

Hi, and welcome to the HA community,

Migration or parallel running of openHAB and HA is a well trodden path with lots of information (just use the search)…

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If this helps, this post!

[tmjpugh]

@mjeshurun

For the past few years I’ve been running my smart home using OpenHAB installed on Unraid as a docker container.

If your using docker

HA in docker may be better than HA OS

[mjeshurun]

Thank you for your suggestion

Can you please explain why it would be better to run HA in docker in my scenario?

If I understood the HA documentation correctly, in HAOS all the addons are installed, configured and updated from within HAOS, whereas, in docker I will need to manually install, configure and update each addon separately, and only later connect the addons to HA.

Did I understand correctly?

[mjeshurun]

Thank you very much, James
I will take the time to read these threads.
I hope I will find a good solution in one of them

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

Nope you’re correct

My personal preference is haos. I have no desire to be a Linux or docker administrator. But the flexibility is there if you want.

[tmjpugh]

@mjeshurun

Can you please explain why it would be better to run HA in docker in my scenario?

I presume if you are using docker you have other services in docker already and you know how to manage docker

Docker is more flexible in my opinion and I don’t like VMs.

My recommendation is a mix of my preference and logic based on presumption of your current setup

[FloatingBoater (James Derrick)]

To be a bit more specific:

• There’s no specific openHAB tool, but the individual protocols do include migration.

• Migrating 40x Z-Wave devices to HA was a case of importing the S0 key, and moving the coordinator across. Most devices “just worked” but a few Fibaro FGD-212 refused so needed a manual reset and add.

• Zigbee came later for me, so I’ve not tried a migration - guess at a similar process.

• SmartThings WLAN (i.e. not Zigbee) has an issue at the moment caused by Samsung being rather horrid to their users. For now, my own kit works fine as I have an existing access token.

• I’ve seen Broadlink devices mentioned, but I made my own using ESPhome ()HA specific Arduino / Tasmota like firmware) and ESP8266.

• Starting out, I’d use HAOS - this is an appliance locked-down OS like openHABian but with auto-managed containers for HA and Add-Ons (integrations are part of HA), with a Supervisor doing the management. Docker does give more flexibility, but has less features and YOU have to do the work to manage updates.Your cost / benefit may vary.
  I just got a RPi4 and parallel ran HAOS with another RPI4 with openHABian.

Documentation

Architecture sketch (more detailed than the docs):

2025.1: Backing Up into 2025!

[image] Integrations are part of Core Add-ons are containerised services

If this helps, this post!

[finity]

As to the HA Container (HA running in docker solely managed by the user) or HAOS (HA running in docker but solely managed by the supervisor along with all add-ons) question…

do you have any docker containers that aren’t home automation related? not all docker containers have equivalent add-ons. If you are running any of those then if you run HA OS you won’t be able to use those on the same machine (easily…). Otherwise you should probably use HA OS.

[mjeshurun]

Thank you all for the good suggestions and leads.
I’ve read about the differences between HAOS and HA docker and there is a topic I’m not entirely sure about.
Can HAOS include and run more than one Zwave controller?
I know HA docker can, but I’m not sure if HAOS can do that too.

[FloatingBoater (James Derrick)]

Hi,
Z-Wave networks can only have one coordinator, and multiple networks would interfere with each other, so I’m unsure why you would wish more than one.

Adding mains powered routing devices is usually the best way to get a reliable network. There are HA specific guides on the forum- suggest a search.

I did migrate my Z-Wave S0 key from openHAB to HA.

If this helps, this post!

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

Outbuilding scenarios, James. Very valid use case.

@mjeshurun while you can only have one coordinator on a specific Zwave network, and yes a repeating device is the BEST way to go. But if you do have an outbuilding scenario you can connect additional standalone ZWave JS or JSUI servers through MQTT, then run an additional network with that and a second coordinator. Repeat as necessary. Yes possible - avoid if you don’t need to.

[mjeshurun]

I have two zwave controllers in my house. One was bought in the US and is configured to run with a US frequency, while the second zwave controller was bought in the EU and is configured to run with a EU frequency.

I need both to work, because over the years I bought various zwave devices, while a few devices are from the US and the others are from the EU – and I need to use all of them.
So basically, I need to have two zwave networks running in my house:

1. the US frequency network
2. the EU frequency network.

As to the migration of the nodes I included on OpenHAB, HA found them very easily and I am able to set them up