Re-thinking my install, virtualization thoughts?

[ha-teo]

I currently run the newest Home Assistant OS (Core 2026.1.1, Supervisor 2026.01.0
Operating System 16.3, Frontend 20260107.1) on a virtual machine (Oracle VirtualBox) on a windows machine. The HOS itself has been bulletproof.

My issue is that there are constant issues with my USB dongles (bluetooth/zigbee) dropping and being not found. I have them configured in VirtualBox, and in general, the work. Sometimes they work for months, others for days. But eventually, they stop working (Home Assistant says the device at addresd XXXXXX cannot be found) and I either plug/unplug, or, reboot the VM.

What other options are people using? I am comfortable with linux - this is a Windows machine because it also serves another purpose. Has anyone else seen this?

[fleskefjes]

I’ve been running bare-metal hypervisors hosting my HA for many years, just recently switched over from ESXi to Proxmox. Paired with a network Zigbee coordinator you get a lot of flexibility.

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

If the machine needs to be windows to serve another purpose it’s not fit to be a ha server imho.

My suggestion would be to get HA of the desktop windows box and put it on prox. I’ve seen nothing but problems on the forum form virtual box and virtual USB. No way am I running this in a desktop os and expecting server stability. Sorry. I’m with Fles… Move the box. If you need to keep windows - virtualize that. You can run desktop windows in virtual too.

[ha-teo]

Not what I want to hear! lol

I have had decades of experience running other servers in a similar way, without any issue, but I didn’t have the same hardware constraints. I’m sad to hear that you’ve heard such problems with virtual USB. sigh.

Thanks for the reply

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

Been doing this for 27 years my friend, and part of that workin for the man themselves… Microsoft doesn’t even support virtual USB on HyperV on desktop windows. Just sayin.

[PecosKidd]

Here’s another vote to consider ProxMox. Doing so would let you change from this:

     HA          Other Things
       |------|------|
             VM
              |
           Windows
              |
          Hardware

to this:

     HA          Other Things
       |------|------|
           Proxmox
              |
           Hardware

This would reduce overhead and complexity, and USB pass-through works great.

Note that in the Proxmox model, as Nathan said, Windows can be run as one of the “Other Things”, if desired.

[ha-teo]

I’ve been dodging moving to a type-1 setup, but I guess this is the catalyst. Thanks everyone, off to do some reading.

[PecosKidd]

If you decide to go that route, this is an excellent guide:

Installing Home Assistant OS using Proxmox 8

Installing Home Assistant OS using Proxmox 8 (Previously Installing Home Assistant OS using Proxmox 7) This guide will assist in installing Home Assistant on x86/64 machines using Proxmox as the operating system. It has been tested and verified on several machine types including Lenovo m700, Dell Optiplex SFF 990, Dell Optiplex USFF 780, and HP T520 thin client. This guide uses scripts originally created by @Tteck who sadly passed away in early November 2024. The scripts hav…

[ShadowFist]

@ha-teo

My issue is that there are constant issues with my USB dongles (bluetooth/zigbee) dropping and being not found. I have them configured in VirtualBox, and in general, the work. Sometimes they work for months, others for days. But eventually, they stop working (Home Assistant says the device at addresd XXXXXX cannot be found) and I either plug/unplug, or, reboot the VM.

What other options are people using? I am comfortable with linux - this is a Windows machine because it also serves another purpose. Has anyone else seen this?

Another +1 vote for Proxmox and the guide linked in the post just above mine.

However, I strongly suspect that your underlying issue is this:

When you do move to Proxmox and set up your integrations, make sure whatever integration is using a USB device is set up to use the by-id path, since that never changes.

[fleskefjes]

To further expand on the flexibility using an ethernet based Zigbee coordinator (assuming this is your only USB device you use for HA) - You get more flexible placement (stick the coordinator somewhere central in your house and stow the servers away somewhere else) and you could also down the line set up replication and high availability on your proxmox environment. Snapshots are nice to do before upgrades also, and you can do snapshot backups aswell.

https://smlight.tech/ has good options, I use the SLZB06p7 my self with great success.

[mterry63 (Martin)]

Personally I ran both my development and production Home Assistant servers on Windows/Virtualbox for over a year without any real issues. That said, my controllers were all connected to a Raspberry Pi and connected via TCP/IP instead of pass-through USB for most of that time. I did run USB for a while on the development box.

If you just want to clear the pain of USB pass-through you could consider moving the USB devices to a RPi with ser2net running. I’ve been running this for years without issues.

[tmjpugh]

@ha-teo

What other options are people using? I am comfortable with linux

Docker on Debian

Direct HAOS install onto server barebmetal (no container or VM)

[ha-teo]

Hi all, thanks again for the discussion.

I got my hands on an old dell micro workstation (intel i5 6xxx gen), and installed Proxmox. I started with an LXC container, got my plex over there, setup a dns server for local stuff, samba server to put/take from the plex, and then tried to make a new VM for homeassistant. I backed up, stopped, installed from backup… wow, everything just… works. so easy.

I even got the USB passthrough to work for my bluetooth dongle and zigbee dongle with only a few clicks (also usb passthrough for external storage into plex). I couldn’t ask for easier! I didn’t have to reconfigure a single device or automation.

The only gotcha is my BLE sensor in my freezer (temp) isn’t picking up because my server is across the house, will have to see how I can fix that.

thanks again!

[Taleya]

I run mine as a proxmox VM - very recently (last weekend) migrated the entire VM to a new proxmox server! - and am running a zigbee dongle with zero issues

[Taleya]

Just build a BT proxy. We’re doing that for the basement brewery gear, much less hassle.

[Chrisalbertson]

The answer is simple, get rid of Windows and run a bare metal hypervisor. Almost everyone uses Proxmox. vmware has one too. Both are free to use but Proxmox is open source and I think much better for a smalleish server room.

The actual hardware can be anything X86. You want at least 8GB RAM and SSD. An Intal N100 (four cores and very little power) is more then enough

I run HA in a VM and both Mosqito and Zigbee2mqtt each in a contained under poxmox. Proxmox can directly run either a VM or a container.

I also keep a test instance of HA on the same proxmox server, It is for experiments. With zigbee2mqtt it it’s one container, I only need one for any number of HA instances

I have practiced the “restore after failed server” scenario and can move a backup from the proxmox backup server to a spare proxmox server, the proces takes about two minutes. Half of that is me trying to remember what to do.

I run a copy of the Proxmox Backup Server in a VM on my NAS. It has very good deduplication so a typical daily backup is only a few MB.

[fleskefjes]

@ha-teo

The only gotcha is my BLE sensor in my freezer (temp) isn’t picking up because my server is across the house, will have to see how I can fix that.

As @Taleya mentions, just use a Bluetooth proxy. I recommend these ATOM Lite ESP32 IoT Development Kit | m5stack-store, they are tiny and look decent enough (no exposed pins).