Indigo (Mac automation software)
Homebridge (still using)
Homey Pro (Kickstarter version)
Habitat
Fibaro HC 3
Homey again (the new one)
Occasionally shifting platforms because the grass always looked greener and there was always a device that wasn’t supported on the platform I was on. But with each migration new limitations appeared.
I finally took the plunge and installed HA on an old Pi to get some cheap IKEA sensors to work. Intending to just publish those devices to Homey Pro and automate them there. Within a day I’d drunk the cool aid. Amazing community, a way to accomplish anything. ESP32Home & Node Red sealed the deal.
I upgraded to a HA Green to run it on the ‘official’ hardware and started the migration from Homey (ah the joys of re-paring in-wall ZWave device).
As a new convert I began evangelising to others and convinced the work IT guy to install it on a VM to automate some lights at work. Of course the work server is way faster than my HA green, and so I started getting FOMO and looking around for better options for my home HA machine, as long as I’m going all in on HA, I want to do it right.
So here’s my situation:
-2018 intel Mac mini running Homebridge for apple HomeKit, Plex and all the ‘arr’ apps
-HA Green
-Lots of ZWAVE
-Shelly wifi devices
-Unifi Protect/Network
-Sonos audio
-Alexa voice control
-Apple phones/watches/TV etc
-Open Sprinkler
-ESP32 / Arduino solenoid / sensor control (farming irrigation)
-Phillips Hue hub
-Assorted Zigbee and IP stuff
-Other old controllers
Should I?
-Stick with the HA Green
-HA Yellow with a Pi4(5)?
-Install HA on a NUC bare metal
-Install HA on the mini using VMWare or UTM.
-Install HA on the mini using Docker
-Replace the mini and the yellow with a linux server running Proxmox
-Something else?
I’d like:
-The Zwave / zigbee / thread / RFXcom USB dongles to work
-Ideally Plex / HA on the same machine
-Able to have remote gateways for Zwave & Zigbee so the controller can sit in the server rack remote, but on the network
-No compromises for rock solid reliability and performance
I’m pretty new to Linux / VM’s / Docker but ready to do the work.
Any sage advice on the right path for this paralysed padawan would be awesome.
I have been running everything on a RP4 for 4+ years now with no problem. My NVR is on a separate device (video processing needs more powerful hardware). No FOMO here.
I’m sure there will be a lot of others who have been running successfully on their preferred hardware/software platform. That’s the beauty of Home Assistant - you can run it on many different platforms. So pick what works for you. And you can upgrade to a different platform if you need something more.
Fellow former Indigo here as well, welcome! For me I found that running VMWare on my Mac was the easiest to work with and quite fast. I have a couple VM’s on my main “house server” along with Plex and it works like a charm.
Colorado Four Wheeler! I remember you from the Indigo forums, your excellent community contributions there were one of the reasons I persevered with it for so long! Will give VMWare a go. Cheers.
Another former Indigoer here. Been using HA for 4ish years now without issue except those of my own doing. Matt and Jay are awesome but there’s no way two guys can compete with the juggernaut that is HA. These days, pretty much its only limitations are the user’s ability.
I started off with HA by running it in a VM on the Indigo Mini. When I decided to take the plunge and fully convert, I reformatted the HD and installed Linux on my Indigo mini (2012 i5) with HA (supervised) on top. Later I converted it to Proxmox (still on the mini) and ran HAOS on a VM.
Now I have 4 Mac minis - 2 i5, and 2 i7 (all 2012 models and all with 16 GB of ram and 500GB SSDs in a Proxmox cluster. I still run the main HA as a VM but have various other HA instances that I play with installed as well.
I’ll say that a 2012 (and probably newer as well) mini makes a fantastic Linux/proxmox box and you could even run a Mac vm on pro mix on the mini to still handle your “air” things.
I went the Linux / Proxmox but I have other parts of my overall solution that requires a Mac, like using Airfoil for all my TTS so it’s where I landed but any VM works better than any rPi and many micro computers.
Another former Indigoer here. Been using HA for 4ish years now without issue except those of my own doing. Matt and Jay are awesome but there’s no way two guys can compete with the juggernaut that is HA. These days, pretty much its only limitations are the user’s ability.
Hey Terry. Yeah, it did seem like Matt & Jay were under siege a lot of the time from impatient users (like me) who didn’t comprehend the challenge of maintaining a stable product, whilst trying to support each new shiny gadget people coveted.
I started off with HA by running it in a VM on the Indigo Mini. When I decided to take the plunge and fully convert, I reformatted the HD and installed Linux on my Indigo mini (2012 i5) with HA (supervised) on top. Later I converted it to Proxmox (still on the mini) and ran HAOS on a VM.
I suspect this might be where I end up too, The promise of things like Apple Shortcuts, and Mac OS in general, being useful for automation seems a distant memory. I’m considering skipping the in-between part and jumping in with Proxmox on the mini. After all, my half finished Homey/HA migration has meant a lot of automations are broken anyway, and my other half is sympathetic / accustomed to that being the case.
Is there a particular tutorial you’d recommend to walk me through nuking the mini and setting up Proxmox? Or did you already have enough knowledge to just DIY?
I didn’t really do anything special for the 2012 minis, just booted to a USB installer and installed as I would for any other PC . IIRC the wifi and bluetooth worked with Ubuntu but not with Proxmox. I don’t use either of those on the ‘server’ though so wasn’t a big deal for me.
Your 2018 has the T2 security chip which obviously won’t be supported or used with Linux. There is a special process if you want to keep some Mac bootabillity (and also initialize things like wifi/BT chips). There is a reddit link somewhere that gets into the details about the process (I think this is it: Can I install linux on my 2018 Mac mini? ). As a side note, thunderbolt works fine out of the box with linux. For a while I was using a Thunderbolt to Fiber Channel adapter to power a drive tray from an old Sun StorageTek SAN. I still use an Apple thunderbolt GB ethernet adapter for the internal proxmox backbone (for cluster syncs, moving VMs, etc.)
I find the minis to be incredibly reliable. The first 2012 -the Indigo one- was bought new and has never been turned off except to move, extended power outages, OS/HD/Memory installs, etc. Literally 12 years and still going strong. The others have been equally impressive.