Which synology do you have - does it allow running VM’s? If so, why not installing HA there?
But, as others already said, “life vital” things really shouldn’t rely on HA, they should be standalone, connecting to HA is just for additional comfort.
One of the biggest advantages of Proxmox setup → is the backups.
- I have a cheap “terminal” PC (actually cheaper than RPIs)
- Proxmox as the host – a lightweight Linux to manage virtual machines, etc.
- HomeAssistant OS as a virtual machine
- Z2M and Mosquitto as LXCs (“containers”)
- Proxmox is configured to make backups of the virtual machine and LXCs every day, keep weekly backups, monthly, yearly, etc.
- The backups are “holistic” → it’s just all the possible data that HA contains, “bit by bit”. I don’t need to wonder if everything is backed-up → for sure it is.
- I’ve already restored both HA and Z2M backups successfully, after disappointing updates, when something stopped working with the new version. I’ve also restored backups from a few months back, just to check if a certain thing worked back then, and again restored to the latest one to be up to date again. It’s simple and it works.
- I keep the backups on a separate hard drive, I’m planning to add another one, so that I always have two copies.
- Apart from many other Proxmox setup advantages → backups are one of its greatest strengths.
If you move to a virtualized setup you can also use snapshots. A quick way to make a point in time to roll back to when doing upgrades / updates. I take snapshots on every major release, if something breaks I can roll back in seconds.
Yes, it allow it.
I have not tried yet because I was not sure to be able to use the backup file to easily move HA in the new location.
Just a question may I have two instance of Home Assistant working at the same time? I mean continuing to use the RPi version untile I’m quite sure the VM versions works well?
Yes, no problem, I run more than 1 HA instance at the same time
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Just make sure they don’t have the same host name and IP address you’re fine.
Should HA username and password be the same?
For? You need a lot more context. What’s your intended end game with it.
They are independent installs at this point and completely unrelated to each other except in how YOU relate them so you tell me do they need to be the same?
Whats the intent?
Yes backups are agnostic. Yes you need them. Beyond that the plan will be what best suits YOUR use case and none of us can answer that for you.
I just did a full rebuild and restore on my RPi. I was surprised how smoothly it went. It’s really a very simple process. After starting the “new” HA, I installed the SAMBA add-on so I could grab the backup file, restored it and I was back to where I’d started.
I know this is just part of the question the OP asked, but I didn’t want anyone reading this thread to come away with the impression that the restore is a difficult process.
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You can restore your current HA backup into synology, sure. Whole thing will run way faster than on Pi4, too, especially if you assign all cores to that VM. And it’s good to reserve 4GB of memory, so perhaps you’ll have to upgrade your ram in Syno.
A hint: you don’t need original (expensive) ram module, also many syno models support more ram then officialy told - i have 20GB (original 4+16 additional module) on my DS920+ - do a bit of research before buying memory.
Just moving from RPi to NAS 721+ VM. After I’m ensuring everything works well I will shutdown the RPi.
My question is: after installing the HA OS on the NAS VM I need to create a different username or could I keep the same username?
I have 10 GB so it should be ok
Don’t over think it.
- backup. Store this file somewhere accessible on your LAN. You will need to use it in step 4. Disconnect any dongles and keep them for step 6.
- shut down the Pi and keep it off. This is your rollback plan.
- install new HAOS inside your virtualization system. Make sure it basically works don’t do too much just make sure it runs. You’re about to overwrite it’s config.
- restore from step 1 backup. Wait until it completes.
- completely power off and restart the vm. Yes power off.
- boot VM and transfer any devices
- fix what’s broken (likely pass through of your usb to the HAOS v.)
- profit! (you’re done)
If you make it here backup your new system and pull the disk out of your Rpi. You don’t need it anymore
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This is very useful, many thanks.
I suppose I need also to change the IP into nabucasa account but I didn’t find the way, unless I remove the current account and create a new one.
Swap IP addresses between step 2 and 3.
Your new instance will login as if nothing happened. It Is your original installation - and why I said take the Rpi offline once the backup is done. Do NOT bring it back online after you restore the backup to the new installation or you will break all kinds of logins. Once the new install comes up and is verified working format the disk supporting your old instance. 
As i mentioned above you can create your own domain - Synology comes with your own ddns address (like yourname.synology.me etc…), so you can access HA with, say, home.yourname.synology.me, or ha.yourname.synology.me…
You can try with my guide HERE.
And, since you already have Pi, if you don’t have any other plans with it then i’d use it for testing purposes: so you can tinker on your test HA instead on live one. If anything goes wrong no damage will be done (also other users won’t be mad when you restart HA million times when testing…). Just change Pi’s IP and you’re done.
This was not possible as the only solutions were to oprn a new account or to resore a backup
Unfortunately, I got stuck at this step. I can’t load the backup that gets stuck at this stage:
I tried few times but without success.
Could I open a new account and after try again to restore the backup?
Yes, create a new (local HA) account and then restore. That should bring back whatever account you had in the old system. I keep my backups on a local NAS, so after re-installing a clean HA system, I can install the SAMBA add-on, copy the backup to the local HA drive and restore from there. I just had to do this last week and it went very smoothly.
It’s important to understand that the restore puts back all your customizations, but does not restore whatever version of the OS and HA core you have installed. Thus it’s useful to back out a failed update.
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